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Consumer Safety

Fitting child seats made safe and simple – new Standard

Issue 25 – March 2011

Installing or removing a child car seat can be tricky, particularly if you have more than one car. Car seats, seat belts, and their anchorages vary between different models of cars, which can make it difficult to fit a child car seat correctly or to know if it has been properly installed. The ISOFIX attachment system is designed to solve these problems and is used to connect the car seat to the vehicle, to make fitting child seats safe and simple. ISOFIX has just been improved thanks to a new ISO Standard.

The new Standard is Road vehicles – Methods and criteria for usability evaluation of child restraint systems and their interface with vehicle anchorage systems – Part 1: Vehicles and child restraint systems equipped with ISOFIX anchorages and attachments ISO 29061-1:2010. The aim of ISOFIX is to ensure that any ISOFIX child car seat you buy will fit your car simply by plugging it into the ISOFIX points. The other benefit of ISOFIX is that it will create a rigid link between the child seat and the car.

'The usability of a child restraint system – in both correct installation and day-to-day use – is of utmost importance,' says Prof. Lotta Jakobsson, Convenor of the team that developed ISO 29061-1:2010. 'This ensures that a child restraint system is used in accordance with the manufacturer's intentions, and that it will function properly in a crash. I foresee ISO 29061-1 benefiting child seat and car manufacturers as a development tool, on the one hand, and consumers, on the other, by helping them select a user-friendly child restraint system.'

ISO 29061-1 provides:

  • child restraint and car manufacturers with a tool to assess the usability of new and current ISOFIX systems, to promote smart and user-friendly design
  • parents and caregivers with information on the key features about the proper use of the ISOFIX system, to help them to select car seats/child restraint systems and vehicles with ISOFIX systems that are easy to use properly.

→ Buy ISO 29061-1:2010 (hard copy)

You can order PDFs of ISO Standards by calling 0800 782 632 during business hours or emailing enquiries@standards.co.nz.

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