what it is? Photo and video
At the time of this writing, there are three main officially approved methods of fastening child car seats in the world:
- using regular seat belts;
- ISOFIX is a system approved in Europe;
- Latch is an American counterpart.
As we wrote earlier on our automotive portal Vodi.su, according to the Rules of the Road, children up to 135-150 cm tall should be transported only with the use of special restraints - which ones, the traffic rules do not say, but it must necessarily correspond to height and weight.
For non-compliance with these requirements, the driver risks, in the best case, falling under the article of the Code of Administrative Offenses 12.23 part 3 - 3 thousand rubles, and in the worst case, paying with the health of children. Based on this, drivers are forced to buy restraints.
I must say that the range is quite wide:
- adapters for a regular seat belt (such as domestic "FEST") - cost around 400-500 rubles, but, as practice shows, in emergency situations they are of no use;
- car seats - the range of prices is the widest, you can buy a chair for one and a half thousand rubles produced by an unknown Chinese company, and samples tested by all possible institutes for 30-40 thousand;
- boosters - a backless seat that raises the child and he can be fastened with a standard seat belt - are suitable for older children.
The best choice is a full-fledged car seat with Isofix attachment system and five-point seat belts.
What is ISOFIX - let's try to figure it out.
ISOFIX mount
This system was developed in the early 90s. It does not represent anything particularly complicated - metal brackets that are rigidly attached to the body. Already judging by the name, which contains the prefix ISO (International Standards Organization), you can guess that the system is approved by international standards.
It must be equipped with all vehicles that are manufactured or supplied to the markets of the European Union. This requirement came into effect in 2006. In Russia, unfortunately, there are no such initiatives yet, however, all modern cars have one or another mounting system for child restraints.
You can usually find the ISOFIX hinges on the rear row of seats by lifting up the back cushions. For easier finding, decorative plastic plugs with a schematic image are put on them. In any case, the instructions for the car should indicate whether these brackets are available.
In addition, when buying a child restraint of a certain category - we already wrote about the categories of car seats on our website Vodi.su - you must make sure that it is also equipped with ISOFIX mounts. If it is, then it will not be difficult to properly fix the chair: in the rear lower part of the chair there are special metal skids with a lock that engage with the hinges. For beauty and ease of use, plastic guide tabs are put on these metal elements.
According to statistics, 60-70 percent of drivers do not know how to properly attach a seat, which causes various incidents:
- twisting belts;
- the child constantly slips out of his seat;
- the belt is too tight or too loose.
It is clear that in the event of an accident, such errors will be very expensive. ISOFIX also helps to completely avoid errors. For reliability, the car seat can be additionally secured with a belt that is thrown over the back of the seat and hooked onto the brackets. Please note that in some car models ISOFIX can be both in the rear seats and in the front right passenger seat.
The American analogue - LATCH - is made according to the same scheme. The only difference is in the mounts on the chair itself, they are not metal skids, but straps with a carabiner, thanks to which the hitch is more elastic, although not as rigid, and it takes more time to install.
Of the minuses of ISOFIX, we can distinguish:
- restrictions on the weight of the child - the staples do not withstand a mass of more than 18 kg and may break;
- chair weight restrictions - no more than 15 kg.
If you make simple measurements using Newton's first and second laws, you can see that with a sharp stop at a speed of 50-60 km / h, the mass of any object increases by 30 times, that is, the staples at the moment of collision will have a mass of approximately 900 kg .
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