Experts point out that most Chinese parents are misinformed about child safety seats. Zhang Xiaolong, director of Simulation Impact Lab with the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, says children can be easily hurt without those seats.
"When vehicles collide, a kid weighing 10 kilograms will be thrown at a force of 300 kilograms. An adult cannot withstand such a strong force with their arm."
Zhang also adds that adult safety belts can easily choke the children as it is not designed for their small bodies.
Expert says child safety seat is tailored made for child, its production has strict standard. However, many seats that are sold on the internet look more like a dining chair with a belt, and they usually cost less than 100 yuan. Industrial insider warn parents that such so call safety seat will cause more harm in traffic accident rather than protecting the child.
For those parents who are concerned about their children's road safety, many say they would choose imported safety seat rather than the domestic products.
"I would buy my child a safety seat of foreign brand, rather than those made-in-China."
Due to lack of confidence in domestic brand, many parents only keep their eyes on foreign products, however, the price of a foreign safety seat can be as high as 1000 yuan to 5000 yuan. So the high prices keep some parents away from the seat.
Sun Zhendong, senior engineer of China Automobile Engineering Research Institute says that the application rate for child safety seats is rather low in China compared with developed countries.
"We've done surveys in several big cities in China, like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. The results show that the application rate for child safety seats is higher in Beijing than in other cities. Still the rate of use is less than five percent in Beijing."
Statistics show that more than 10,000 children die in traffic accidents in China every year.
For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.
