Smartphone app enhances car seat

Date: 2/7/2012

A new car seat has been launched which has a smartphone app incorporated into its design in order to enhance its safety features.

The new innovation from First Years, which is one of the TOMY international brands, sends alerts to parents if a life threatening situation occurs.

These situations can vary from the seat being installed incorrectly through to the child being unbuckled or left in the car by accident.

The First Years' Convertible Car Seat with iAlerts has been recognised by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US, which has given it a 5 star ease of use rating.

Greg Kilrea, President of TOMY International, said: "At TOMY and The First Years our mission is to help parents and caregivers keep kids safe by making our quality products easy to use and install and by building in features and functions that take some of the guesswork out of using infant gear properly."

TOMY said that it created the product as a response to recent alarming statistics on child car safety which have been released.

The company states that thousands of children are injured or killed in car accidents each year and many of them are down to car seats not being installed properly.

After crash related incidents heatstroke is the second biggest cause of deaths to children in cars each year and in 2011 there were 33 fatalities due to children being unintentionally left in vehicles in the US.

Mr Kilrea said: "Being able to provide parents with the additional peace of mind that comes with technological advances such as iAlert is central to our Company mission."

The NHTSA has recently reviewed its recommendations on fitting car seats, reminding parents and guardians that they should be based on the child's age and size.

Further to this it is important that the manual for the car where the seat is being fitted is consulted in order to make sure it is done correctly.

Posted by Sarah Bailey

Transport Research News and Vehicle Safety News