Attention danger! – How does this junk child seat end up on the market?

Stay away from this child seat! The ÖAMTC and its partner organizations have identified serious safety deficiencies: During the test, a part broke off and the seat and the strapped-in child dummy flew around. This is the product Peg Perego Viaggio Twist with the manufacturer’s Isofix base.

“During the frontal crash test with the seat mounted against the direction of travel, the support foot broke off at the joint from the Isofix base. The seat shell then detached from the base and was thrown forward along with the 15-kilogram dummy, which could lead to serious injuries in a real accident,” explains ÖAMTC technician Steffan Kerbl. The test was similar for the seat installed in the direction of travel: Here too, according to the ÖAMTC, the support foot broke in the frontal crash. The forces released tore the plastic casing of the base apart and caused the dummy to be thrown far up and forward.Advance warning about safetyThe test results of the other candidates have not yet been published, but the clubs were forced to warn in advance about the dangerous child seat and to confront the manufacturer. Sales were then temporarily stopped. However, there is no warning on the manufacturer’s website. Anyone who has already purchased the product should contact the dealer or the manufacturer’s service contact. However, there is no right to return or exchange products that have already been purchased – customers would only have this if legal requirements were not met. But this is not the case. The club still expressly advises against purchasing it. Unsafe product on sale – how is that possible? The child seat, which was rated so poorly, has been approved since October 2023. Although it meets the legal requirements, it still does not survive the test unscathed. How does this happen? Quite simply: different test criteria. In order for a child seat to be sold, it must pass less stringent tests than those of the car clubs. According to the ÖAMTC, these frontal impact tests were based on the severity of the accidents in the Euro NCAP crash tests. “Significantly higher forces act on the products than in the legally required approval tests for child seats,” explains the club. “However, studies in recent years have shown that many products offer good protection even with the higher requirements of the consumer protection test.” So the question must be: Why are the legal regulations so lax?
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