The government instructed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to tighten the requirements for car seats and “child restraints”

The government, Kommersant found out, instructed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to tighten the requirements for car seats and “child restraints” against the backdrop of an increase in the number of accidents in which children are injured. But the price of surrogate devices—correctors and seat belt adapters—is significantly lower than their certified counterparts, which is what attracts buyers. State Duma deputies, together with the traffic police, are already working on amendments to the traffic rules that exclude the possibility of using any substitute car seats under threat of a fine.

Until November 15, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will work on proposals to tighten the requirements for “child restraints”, as well as the corresponding seat belt correctors (adapters). This instruction was given by the head of the government commission on traffic safety, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. This was confirmed to Kommersant by a representative of Mr. Khusnullin. The Ministry of Industry and Trade told Kommersant that the issue is “being studied.”

Traffic regulations, let us remind you, oblige a child under seven years of age to be transported in a car in a “child restraint device” (CDU). Children from 7 to 11 years old can be transported using standard seat belts if the height and weight of the passenger allows. Violation of the rules is fraught with a fine of 3 thousand rubles. According to the traffic police, in January-September in Russia there were 13.5 thousand accidents (+10% compared to the same period last year) with victims under the age of 16 years, of which in 910 accidents children were not wearing a seat belt or were driving without a car seat.

As Denis Zagarin, head of the Research Center for Testing and Development of Motor Vehicles at FSUE NAMI, explained to Kommersant, the main problem is in the various “correctors and adapters” of seat belts (usually a fabric triangular overlay with a fastener). They cost an order of magnitude cheaper than car seats (200–500 rubles), which attracts buyers. “During an accident, a child slips out from under the adapter or is injured. The belt should pass strictly over the collarbone, and not over the stomach or neck,” Mr. Zagarin explained to Kommersant. The so-called frameless car seats (cost 800–900 rubles) pose no less of a threat. This is a fabric backpack that is attached to a standard seat belt (the child in it is fastened with separate belts). These devices are also not capable of restraining a child in the event of a serious accident, NAMI says.

These products need to be removed from sale, Denis Zagarin insists. His position is also supported by Roskachestvo: “With the participation of Rosakkreditatsiya, as well as a number of organizations and associations, we are constantly fighting the sale of such devices, and also inform Russians that surrogates for child restraints are dangerous.” In 2023, Roskachestvo, in cooperation with retailers and Rosstandart, sent a number of warnings to sellers: trading platforms closed product cards, Rosstandart fined some stores. Adapters and “triangles” have almost been removed from offline trade, but they are still present online, Tatyana Butskaya, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children, told Kommersant.

So, yesterday Kommersant found several dozen active advertisements on marketplaces for the sale of adapters and frameless car seats, including in Wildberries and Ozon. The Ozon press service assured Kommersant that they prohibit their sale. “Before publishing cards, we check products automatically and manually; some sellers may violate the rules of the site and try to bypass the moderation system, for example, they assign a car product to a different category or indicate a different name,” the company explained. “We find such products and hide them in manual mode.” Roskachestvo confirms that devices are entering the market under various names: the adapters found yesterday were sold as “cases” and “plugs.” The Wildberries press service assured Kommersant that they “promptly” remove adapters and similar devices from sale if sellers do not provide “confirming documents on product safety.” The company added that it supports the government’s initiative and compliance with the safety requirements of child restraint systems.

It is necessary to introduce “digitalization and artificial intelligence” tools that prevent the creation of new pages on marketplaces with “surrogates” of child care systems, Rosstandart told Kommersant. “A significant share of the illegal trade in dangerous goods for transporting children in cars passes through marketplaces, which is why it is also necessary to talk about the need to regulate online trading and strengthen the responsibility of marketplaces,” the agency believes. — So-called “turnover fines” are effective as a preventive measure aimed at preventing the circulation of dangerous products on the market. The introduction of these fines on the fuel market, combined with regular inspections, has made it possible to reduce the turnover of low-quality fuel from 20% to 4.9% in 2021 since 2015.”

Tatyana Butskaya proposes a bill obliging online stores with goods for children to provide a link to certificates or a declaration of compliance with safety requirements. “All these pseudo-chairs will not be able to receive a certificate; there should be a warning next to it that the product is not intended for children,” she explained to Kommersant. “We are also working with the traffic police on amendments to the traffic rules in order to spell out even more clearly the ban on the use of adapters and triangles.” Until 2018, we remind you that traffic regulations allowed “other means” (that is, the same adapters) for transporting children instead of child restraint systems (that is, the same adapters), then this loophole was removed. Manufacturers, explains Denis Zagarin, manage to obtain certificates that give the adapters the status of a car seat: drivers present these documents to the traffic police as proof that the child is allegedly being transported according to the rules. Certificates are revoked, but manufacturers receive new ones, often in EAEU member states, Rosstandart told Kommersant. “At the request of Rosstandart, state control (supervision) bodies of the EAEU member states cancel the validity of such certificates, but this does not prevent the rapid emergence of new certificates issued in violation of technical regulations,” the agency explained. “We need to find a sufficiently correct term so that manufacturers of “rags” cannot circumvent the rules,” says Tatyana Butskaya. “Then violators will be guaranteed to be fined if they try to use such an adapter.”

The application of sanctions in any case remains the task of inspectors, reminds the editor-in-chief of the program “Main Road on NTV” Ilya Scriabin; now there are few of them on the roads: “To get to the raid to check car seats, you still need to try.” The expert believes that it is necessary to conduct a powerful social campaign explaining to the population that adapters and correctors cannot be used, and that it is better to replace car seats with new ones after each accident.

Ivan Buranov