Never had to think about this until now you have a baby on the way? Here’s all you need to know about the legalities and fitment of baby carriers and child seats into your car

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SINGAPORE

If you’re just about to embark on this whole parenthood thing and have suddenly realised that you need a baby seat for your car, we have all that you need to know right here. Don't even think about just carrying a baby in your arms in a moving car. Not only is having an unrestrained baby or toddler in a vehicle extremely dangerous, it is also illegal in Singapore.

The law requires anyone below the height of 1.35m to be secured within an appropriate booster seat while in a car. Under the Road Traffic Act, drivers and passengers found not using a seatbelt or appropriate restraints could be fined up to $1,000 or jailed up to three months, or both.

A car in motion may seem like a very secure place, but as anyone who has ever been involved in an accident can tell you, a crash turns this all on its head. In a crash at 45 km/h, an adult back-seat passenger without a seatbelt is thrown in the direction of impact with the force of more than three tons. Imagine what would happen to an unsecured child.

A 2017 study conducted by KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore found that out of 2,468 road traffic injury patients seen in Singapore paediatric emergency departments that year, 51 percent involved children who were unrestrained in vehicles at the time of the accident. Considering how safe Singapore is perceived to be, this is a shocking figure.

The majority of the other injuries were from pedestrian and bicycle accidents, so unrestrained children in cars play a very large part in this statistic.

Why babies and children need child seats

Babies and toddlers under two years old are extremely vulnerable because their skeletons have not yet fully fused together and muscles are not yet at full strength. It’s important to realise that children are not simply smaller versions of adult bodies. For the best protection in a moving vehicle, they need to be seated in a properly supportive seat.

Doting grandparents may want to cuddle and carry a baby during a car journey, stating that “that’s how we did it in our day”. Some may even reject the idea of a child seat as being ‘overprotective’. Make your case by stating that it is illegal for a child to be unsecured in a car. No human being has the reaction time and strength to hold on to a baby in the event of an accident in a modern car. The force of a sudden stop will turn a 7kg baby into a 35kg mini-human torpedo going through the window in a 35km/h crash.

Even worse, a baby can get crushed between an adult body and the safety belt or dashboard. The risks simply aren’t worth it. 

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Young children unbuckled and moving freely about the backseat of the car are another no-go. The excuse may be that the children are restless, but any parent who has conditioned a toddler to be receptive of staying seated in a child seat will tell you that early training is the answer to that.

By law, the deciding factor of when a child can do without a child or booster seat is determined by height, not weight. This is because shorter children risk being strangled by an adult seatbelt if it is not positioned at the right height relative to their bodies. The lower height limit of riding without a booster seat according to Singaporean law is 1.35m.

Next: The child seat options you can choose from

Safely carrying a baby in a car

The safest and most secure way of seating a baby in a car is with a backwards-facing baby seat, also known as a baby capsule. The drawback with a dedicated baby capsule is the very short useful lifespan, usually only for about 12 months. These typically secure the baby in an anatomically shaped ‘bucket’ with a safety harness and is then secured to the base fitted to a car’s back seat. Many of these baby capsules are modular and can be removed from the car and clipped onto a stroller/pram wheeled base for use outside the car. They may seem very versatile but have a very short useful life in the grand scheme of things, and you'll soon have to buy a whole new bigger setup.

More useful, and more expensive to buy initially, are modular configurable seats. Most will require bolting a fixed base to the car’s back seat, then the seat shell will have multiple levels of support and padding that can be gradually removed as the child grows.

Rear facing is the safest way, and for some child seat makers, the only way to transport a baby. This is because in the unfortunate event of a frontal impact the seat’s shell will support the baby’s entire skeleton. A front facing seat will rely on the safety harnesses to restrain the baby. Babies are soft and malleable and can slip past the restraints in a very violent crash.

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Getting a toddler to stay belted up in a car

Around the age of 18 months is where babies are typically considered toddlers. Baby capsule seats are no longer of use at this stage as they would have outgrown them.

At this point, you’ll also have another potential headache to deal with. The child’s growing awareness of the world around him, together with the sometimes unreasonable need to exert some element of control over his immediate surroundings, mean that belting up into a rear-facing child seat can be the perfect storm for a temper tantrum.

They often want to see what is passing by outside the window and a rear-facing child seat doesn’t allow for that. Safety experts suggest keeping toddlers rear-facing for as long as possible, but somewhere past 12 months they are generally strong enough to be switched to front-facing seats. If your child protests against staring at the ceiling with kicks and wails, you can safely switch to a front-facing seat or module once he or she is old enough.

A 360 degree rotata,ble seat like the Sparco Kids SK600 series may seem like a very expensive initial outlay, but consider that they are nearly infinitely configurable and usable from the time the baby is born until 12 years old. By then the seat would have paid for itself in usage.

Getting the safety belts and harness on can also sometimes turn into a struggle with a wailing toddler that previously as a baby would stay belted up without complaint. The only real answer here is long-term conditioning. Letting them see that everyone in the car must wear a safety belt before it moves off is a good practice, but sometimes a strong willed toddler will keep attempting to wail and smack his way to freedom. Your parenting skills will be sorely tested here. 

At this juncture you either have to upgrade to a larger child seat, or if you have a modular configurable version, adjust it for the growing child. A five-point harness in the unit will typically be standard fit at this point. Ensure that it is adjusted to be secure, but not overly tight and restrictive.

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Older Children 

When a child exceeds 1.35 metres in height, he can be seated without the need of a booster and can use the regular seat belts in a car. But that years into the future if you’re still wrestling with a three-year-old.

There are booster seats that are for older children who have outgrown their car seats, but are not ready to sit unassisted in the car. KK Women and Children’s Hospital advises that children above five years old, but below 1.4 metres in height should travel in a booster seat.

The purpose of a booster seat is to raise the child to the right height for the car’s safety belt to securely restrain him, with the shoulder belt squarely across the chest, in the event of an accident. However, note that the United Nations, which sets safety standards for car seats, has recommended against backless booster seats for children weighing less than 22 kg and below 125cm tall. 

The booster must be secured to the seat, typically with the waist portion of the seatbelt. There are portable, certified options such as the Mifold, that can be quickly opened up and used in taxis and cars that don’t have an appropriate child booster seat fitted.

Portable child seat options

If you don’t own a car but need to have a practical child seat for use between cars or taxis, there are portable child seats that are available, such as the very popular Urban Kanga that can be found at Mothercare stores in Singapore. Certified to European standard ECE R44/04 and approved for use by the Singapore Traffic Police, it’s the most compact full-length car seat available in Singapore.

Practice whipping these foldable child seats in and out of cars so that you can quickly fit them into taxis and private hire cars when needed. They are suitably chunky, but can be carried one-handed and fitted into a car in under two minutes with practice. Almost all designs use the car’s own seatbelt to securely strap the child seat into place.

For children over three years old there are also options like the Ridesafer travel vest, which isn’t cheap but helps to secure the car safety belt in the right position across their bodies.  

As for babies under 18 months old, there are a range of baby capsules that can be fitted into a car and also secured in place with the car's own seatbelt. They are more cumbersome than the portable seats for older children, but you should consider them essential if you travel by cars that are not your own often enough.

Whatever you do, don’t fall for the ‘portable child seats’ you can find for under S$50 from major Asian online shopping portals. None of them are safety certified and will not hold together in the event of a crash. When it comes to child safety in the car, you get what you pay for.

Previous: Introduction
Next: What about taxis and private hire cars?

Taxis and Private hire cars

Think of it as a loophole or practical reasoning, but taxis in Singapore are exempted from the child restraint requirement. The only concession to child safety is that children below the height of 1.35m can only ride in the rear of the taxi.

Private hire cars however, need to be equipped with at least one child restraint device for children aged one to seven years old and  below 1.35 metres in height.

If you have your own portable child seat, this not only gives the child a sense of familiarity in a strange car, but also the assurance to know that the seat is clean and well maintained by yourself. 

Do you carry your baby in a carrier on your chest? Think twice if you think that’s safe in a car or taxi. Tests have shown that the force of a crash can cause babies to fly out of carriers, which themselves can even rip apart on impact. A baby carrier is designed only to hold a static load. An accident will increase the baby’s weight by up to five-fold momentarily and overload the carrier’s weight limit.

Whiplash can also cause the parent’s head to strike the baby with a force enough to kill them. It’s actually a better option to strap a small child into their own seat belt than to wear them or strap them into your lap. It’s not ideal, but it IS slightly safer. 

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Cars with built-in booster seats

Yes they do exist! Volkswagen’s current range of MPVs have two integrated boosters fitted to the middle row. Typically only suitable children over 1.1 metres in height, cars with such features do make for great ad-hoc child transporters such as when you have to suddenly ferry a niece or nephew along with your own children for impromptu playdates.

R129 and R44/04 safety compliance standards

When out shopping for your first child car seat you may come across R129 and R44/04 standards. What are they?

The R129 standard was introduced to Europe in 2013 in an effort to make travel for babies and children even safer. It’s newer than the previous ECE R44 standard, and R129 certified seats are put through more detailed tests for improved head and neck protection.

It is still safe to use an R44 car seat, but expect the R44 standard to be phased out eventually.

R129 standards differ from R44 in that you choose the seat depending on your child's height, not weight. You also have to use ISOFIX attachment points, which fit the car seat’s base directly to your car’s chassis.

R44 certified car seats selections are based on your child’s weight, not height, and are suitable for children from birth up to 12 years old. They also do not require ISOFIX mounting points so are more adaptable to older cars. Car seats that meet the R44 standard are tested for rear and frontal impact, but side-impact crashes are not tested. 

All up, there are many options to keep children safe in cars even if you don’t actually own a car to have a seat permanently fitted. The onus is on parents to educate their children about safety in vehicles, so remember to be prepared to transport the newborn and keep up the safety message as they grow. 

Previous: The child seat options you can choose from