Your child is five times safer in a rear-facing car seat compared to a forward-facing car seat. In a frontal collision, which is the most common type of collision in traffic, the risk increases for huge neck damages and death if the children travel in a forward-facing car seat. The impact on the head, neck and back becomes significantly lower in a rear-facing car seat. A nine-month-old baby has 25% of their body weight in their head, compared to an adult that has 6% of their body weight in the head, (for an average man (82kg) that is 15,5kg extra head weight or total 20,5kg head weight). Children aren’t miniature adults; the children’s heads are very big and heavy compared to their body and the muscles and ligaments in their neck aren’t fully developed.
When sitting in a forward-facing car seat, the upper body is hurled forward at the moment of the crash until the seat belt stops the speed, but the head continues forward at the same speed as the car had before the crash. A heavyweight is then placed on the neck to stop the head’s forward movement. A child in a Axkid rear-facing car seat is often safer than the front-facing driver, that is why Self driving car enginners want to turn the normal car seats to rear-facing.
We at Axkid recommend that children travel in a rear-facing car seat for as long as possible, up to 25 kg and preferably up to 7 years of age. For more detailed information regarding importance rear-facing and child safety in the car, please follow this link to several related articles on the topic: https://axkid.com/articles/