US car seats in the UK

[Steggie]

Why is it that US car seats cannot be used in the UK?

What would/might happen if you were using a US seat permanantly in the UK?

Why is it that US car seats go to 80lbs with a harness and about 40lbs rear facing, when the UK ones don't?

Many Thanks

[Chavtastic]

1. I guess it comes down to passing different standard safety tests. There are plenty of arguments online about whether US or European carseats are safer (heck if I know).

1. Nothing, I expect, no traffic cop is going to look that closely.

1. You can get UK ones that go rear facing to age 7yo or so, and plenty of US ones that don't go rear facing that high (don't the regs vary by state, anyway?).

[Steggie]

I was just wondering if it were illegal to be using a US car seat in the UK. I have aquired a US Britax so I'm wondering whether I could use it or not legally.

[Tangle]

I think that, in order to be legal, it needs to display a label to state that is approved to RE44.* - currently RE44.4, RE44.3 still legal to sell, previous versions still legal to use (I think). If the seat you have is a Britax model that is marketed in the UK and has been tested in Europe but the exact model you have does not have the RE44 mark then I'd be trying to find out if there was any paperwork that I could carry to document why the seat was legal (Cathy and Linda are very good).

My concern is more the insurance side of it - we've got a BeSafe IziKid, which is approved in Sweden to 25kg, but only to 18kg in the UK. From a safety point of view I'd be happy to use it when DD is between 18 and 25kg (and she'd be safer there than in a FF Grp 2 seat), but I would worry that if we did have an accident and she was injured in some way that required long term care then insurance wouldn't pay out because the seat wasn't approved for her weight here...

[BertieBotts]

It is because the fittings are different. A lot of US seats use the LATCH tether strap system which UK cars don't have - if you fit the carseat without the LATCH fastenings being in place, it is likely that it won't be stable enough in the car to be safe.

Then the only other thing I can think of is that US seats tend to have extra chest clips whereas UK guidelines state that a car seat should have only one button to press to release all straps at once, this is to make it easy for a complete stranger who is unfamiliar with children's car seats to be able to undo the seat in the event of a serious crash if you could not get to the seat yourself (which is fairly unlikely to happen, but possible)