This article originally appeared on our sister website, Urban Family Shanghai.
By Yuzhou Hu
It has been reported by The Paper, that roughly one-third of child safety seats sold on online sites have failed a recent quality test led by the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce (SHAIC).
The results, released during the latest SHAIC press conference, were from tests undertaken with 10 renowned online shopping sites including Taobao, JD and yhd.com, along with two physical stores in Yangpu and Qingpu districts.
“We have increased the scope of the random testing this year.” Shi Shulu, deputy director of the consumer protection department of SHAIC, told LaborDaily. In total, 60 groups of seats belonging to 35 brands took the test, amounting to an increase of 275 percent compared to last year.
According to the results, the disqualification rate reached 28.3 percent, a decrease of 40.4 percent year-on-year.
Among the defective 17 batches of seats, seven were found to fail the dynamic test. This is where the crew simulate a variety of car accident scenarios to determine whether the child safety seats provide enough protection in the case of vehicle collision. If they fail to do so, children can easily have their shoulders dislocated or bump into the front seat or dashboard.
“Dynamic test is the most important index for child car seats and directly linked to a child’s safety,” advises Shi. One batch, branded ‘ZazaBaby’ (sold on JD), even had its headrests broken during the test, which bears a large safety risk.
Another index tested by SHAIC is fire resistance. Once the car catches fire, child car seats with a slow combustion rate can extend a child’s capacity to survive until rescued. It was revealed that 16 out of 17 disqualified batches failed this test, with ‘KIDDY’ (sold on T-mall) delivering the most negative result, reaching a level of complete combustion within 15 seconds.
Regulations on Child Restraint System, which was issued in July of 2012, requires children under the age of four to sit in a child car seat when inside a vehicle. Nevertheless, the popularizing rate of baby seats only reached one percent last year, resulting in the fact that approximately 18,800 children perish in traffic accidents every year for not using a restraining car seat, according to the statistics of Shine.
The quality of a child car seat is a very important factor in keeping children safe on the road. So, let’s ensure you purchase an approved safely seat and stay away from these defective products.
[Images via NBD, Shine and People.com]
This article was originally published by our sister magazine Urban Family Shanghai. For more articles like this, visit the Urban Family website, or follow the Urban Family WeChat account (ID: urbanfamilyshanghai).
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