Under Singapore’s traffic laws, all children under eight years old must be strapped up with an approved child restraint when they are travelling in a car. First-time offenders can be fined up to $1,000 or jailed for up to three months upon conviction.

A properly fitted child restraint prevents a child from being thrown about inside, or ejected from, the vehicle. It also absorbs some of the impact force. This means that the child is less likely to be killed or injured in a crash.

According to safety experts, an unrestrained child in a moving car becomes a human projectile during a collision. An unsecured 7kg baby travelling at 50kmh could be violently flung against the dashboard or through the windscreen.

How child seats work

Safety belts are designed for adult body sizes. So until a child is big enough to fit the safety belt correctly, a child safety seat should be used.

Babies, toddlers and young children need a different protection system because their musculoskeletal systems are not fully developed, compared with adults’.

Child safety restraints provide a “ride-down” benefit during rapid deceleration. If properly installed, the restraints allow the child’s body to stop moving as the vehicle is slowing, reducing the forces on the child’s body and preventing contact with hard surfaces inside the vehicle, with other occupants, or other vehicles.

Child seats also distribute the force of a crash to the strongest parts of the skeleton (hips, back and shoulders), and reduce the force on any particular part of the body.

Child seat compatibility and installation

When shopping for a child seat, choose one that is suitable for your child’s size, fits the vehicle and that you can install and use easily. If you’re accepting a hand-me-down, do so with caution. Never use one that has missing parts or that you know was in a crash, because its structure may have been damaged by the previous impact.

Read both the vehicle owner’s manual and the car seat instructions to install the child seat correctly. The installation procedure can be different for various car makes because of the seat belt configuration, vehicle seat design and type of child safety seat. Check your car manual to find out if you need to use a locking clip or other equipment to properly secure the seat.

To be effective, the safety seat must be held tightly with the vehicle’s safety belt. An improperly installed seat doesn’t offer any protection.

More safety tips

Children should ride in the back whenever possible. The back is considered safer as it is further from the front, the most common point of impact of an accident.

Never place an infant in a rear-facing child safety seat in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger-side air bag. The force of the deploying air bag will hit the seat (because of its proximity to the dashboard) and can seriously injure or kill an infant. If you have to place a child in front, move the seat as far back as possible.