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Closed petition Make it a legal requirement to rear-face until minimum aged 4
The Government should raise the minimum age for forward-facing in height-based car seats from 15 months to 4 years old. The current guidelines for height-based seats say that children must be rear-facing until they are over 15 months old.
More details
There are concerns that small children's necks are not developed enough to protect the spinal cord, potentially risking severe injury from forward-facing seats.
When forward-facing in a crash, some research suggests that children’s heads are subjected to stress loads of 180 to 300kg. When rear-facing they are subjected to only 40 to 80kg which is a huge difference.
This research suggests that rear-facing lowers the risk of death or serious injury to 8%. It should be illegal to forward face before the age of 4 unless under certain circumstances, such as a disability.
This petition is closed All petitions run for 6 months