The truth about child car seat laws in WA – and beyond

Gem Midgley was devastated when two children she knew died on a West Australian road earlier this year.

She has since pleaded for the state government to introduce new laws that would help protect young kids in the car.

Midgley emailed Premier Roger Cook and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti in March, citing best practice guidelines from the National Health and Medical Research Council, which said children should wear safety harnesses until they are 12.

The law currently only requires those under seven to use them.

“I am writing to implore you to utilise the full capacity of your role to do as much as possible to keep families safe on our roads,” she said in her email.

“The research has been done, the evidence is clear.

“The current laws are inadequate, fall far below the best practice recommendations and from my personal experience, are not appropriately enforced.

“[The children] would have been safer strapped into car seats – they deserved the protection of the law and I am writing to you to hopefully save the next family from tragedy.”

Speaking to this masthead, Midgley said the premier and transport minister often stood in front of cameras after tragedies and said they would do all they could to improve road safety, but so far there had been no real action.

She said she had not received any reply to her emails, but a state government spokesman confirmed she would receive a reply from the WA Road Safety Commissioner.

A national child health poll conducted by the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne in 2019 revealed two-thirds of children aged 7-10 travelled using only an adult seatbelt, and almost half aged 7-12 travelled in the front seat.

Hospital trauma service director Dr Warwick Teague said while safety campaigns had made some impact, these figures would not have changed much in the past five years as laws had not changed.

“Parents follow the law with the reasonable but incorrect assumption that it is in line with best practice safety recommendations,” he said.

“This is placing children in harm’s way, and we are seeing injuries that could be prevented.

“The risk of serious injury for children who can still fit in a booster seat but don’t use one can be up to 3½ times higher.”

Teague said the laws were last amended in 2007 without major changes since, despite important systems and products upgrades and new research.

Transport ministers across the country met at the end of 2023 and have committed to reviewing the laws within two years.

Together with not-for-profit Kidsafe, Teague has been advocating to make booster seats mandatory for children until they are 10 or could pass a “five-step test”, and said this would be the most practical and pragmatic change.

WA Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner confirmed there would be a review of the current model, undertaken by the National Transport Commission, in the near future and said it was important rules were consistent across the nation.

“It is essential that all drivers and passengers are appropriately restrained. We know if you are not, and you are involved in a crash, you are far more likely to be seriously injured or killed,” he said.

“Children are particularly vulnerable as they have little or no protection from crash forces.”

Warner did not answer questions about whether changing the age restrictions should be considered, and if it could save lives.

There have been 55 deaths on WA roads this year alone, surpassing the 46 recorded in 2023. Of those, 31 were in regional areas. Last week, a nine-year-old boy died in a horror crash south-west of Northam.

The state is on track to record the worst year for road deaths in the past decade.

What can parents do to protect their child in the car?

There are steps parents can take to ensure their children are as safe as possible.

Across WA, parents or caregivers can have car seats fitted professionally.

For type one seats, a list of child car restraint fitters could be found on the RoadWise website, and for type two, a list of professional fitters could be found on the WA Department of Transport website.

Kidsafe WA, which listed transport-related injury is the leading cause of death and the third most frequent cause of hospitalisation for children aged up to 14, also gave further details on when and how to properly restrain children in cars.

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In numbers

• Two-thirdsThe number of children aged 7-10 who travel using only an adult seatbelt
• Almost 50%The number of children aged 7-12 who travel in the front seat
• Up to 3½ timesThe increase in risk when children who can still fit in a booster seat don’t use one
• 55 The number of deaths on WA roads in 2024 so far
• 9The age of a WA boy who died in a crash last week