”I thought I was dead”
It is 01.30 AM the 13 th of April, Kaj and his 2,5 year old daughter Ida are on their way back home to Stockholm from their summer house in Karlskrona. They have covered some 400 kilometers and are almost home. On the E4 around Gnesta Ida suddenly wakes up and Kaj quickly turns his head to look after her. When turning around, his hand inadvertently follows the movement and he loses control over the car.
Kaj believes the car’s speed was about 110 km/h when he landed in the ditch. The car overturned several times and ended upside down. “Everything went so fast. When the car finally stopped I was sure I was dead. I remember thinking: am I in heaven or hell…” says Kaj as he recalls the accident.
The car is surrounded by smoke, the hazard flashes and the light inside the car turn on. For a moment everything is silent. Suddenly he hears Ida crying: “daddy, daddy”. His first reaction is deep sorrow – he thinks Ida is dead as well. But the voice from the back seat does not stop. Badly bruised he crawls over to Ida. When he finally sees her, her realizes for the first time after the accident that life is not over.
In the back seat, hanging upside down, Kaj finds his daughter fastened in her Besafe Izikid. When she sees him she brightens up and laughs cheerfully. He releases Ida and holds her in his arms until the rescue workers arrive.
Their car, a new Audi S6, was wrecked. Kaj got lots of bruises and a black eye from the airbag. Ida, who was sitting rear facing, got a 7 cm long bruise on her right thigh and a smaller bruise in her forehead. Execpt for that she was unhurt and was able to creep out of the car with just a little help from the rescue workers. Today neither Kaj nor Ida has any damage from the accident.
“She climbs happily into the car by herself and sits down in her new car seat” says Kaj.
“Why do you think it went that well” we asked Kaj. “ It is a combination of 4 things: a safe car, a first-class rear facing car seat, the fact that Ida was correctly fastened and sheer luck!”
Kaj has chosen to talk about the accident because he wants parents to think twice. An accident can happen so fast, and it does not only strike other people, but also yourself.
“And if you think about it, the price for a car seat is not something you should pay too much attention to. To some of us this is evident, to others not. In Sweden it is obvious that children sit rear facing in the car. I work for a Norwegian company and in Norway it is not uncommon that children of Ida’s age sit forward facing. If that had been the case, it would probably not have went that well.”
The rear facing installation procedure with floor support and anchorage belts is however evaluated negatively. Both installation and risk of misuse are given the note “ausreichend” = sufficient. This diminishes the total test result.
The installation procedure for Izicombi is the same as used for other rear facing seats in the Nordic market. This installation principle has been used in the Nordic countries for 40 years and is acknowledged as an acceptable standard.
In contrast to the European approval tests ECE R 44, this consumer test does not involve collision from behind. If this had been the case, the functions and necessity of the anchorage belts would have been clear. The function of the anchorage belts is to avoid rotation in case of an impact from behind. All rear facing group 1 car seats on the market have anchorage belts in order to pass the ECE R 44 approval test. The only exception is Besafe Izi Combi Isofix and Besafe Izi Kid Isofix that pass the test without anchorage belts due to a special energy absorbing system in the Isofix base developed by HTS Besafe.
In central Europe rear facing group 1 sears are not common, and so there is no understanding of the characteristics of these seats.
The fact that some consumer organizations have dissuaded from using Besafe Izicombi based on this test, is hence incomprehensible to us.
What signal would such a recommendation send to the consumers?
Which consequences would it have for the safey of the children?
Which alternatives exist for parents who do not have isofix? The answer is simple: other seats with exactly the same installation procedure.
Besafe Izicombi has previously been tested both in Finland and Sweden with the best results, both in crash tests and consumer tests. Besafe Izicombi X2 is one of only 3 seats that have passed the new Swedish PLUS test.
Based on this and other test HTS Besafe as will continue recommending Izicombi X2 rear facing up to 18 kg and urge everyone to read the instruction manual so that the seat is correctly installed.
Best regards
Frank D. Lilleheil
Manager Export and Product Development