Child Restraint Guidelines

National Best Practice Guidelines

Safety of Children in Motor Vehicles

NeuRA and Kidsafe want to see all children as safe as possible when travelling in cars. Ensuring that parents receive straightforward, consistent advice from all sources on how to keep children safe in cars is an important step in making this happen.
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2021 National Guidelines
The National Guidelines for the Safe Restraint of Children Travelling in Motor Vehicles have been developed under the auspices of Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and Kidsafe – The Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia. They provide best practice recommendations for how to safely transport children in motor vehicles. The 2021 edition of the guidelines are a major update from the previous guidelines published in 2013.
Information for parents and carers
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Download Safety of Children in Motor Vehicles - A guide for parents, carers and road safety practitioners
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Download Key changes in the 2021 Guidelines.
This fact sheet shows the key changes from the 2013 guidelines.

Click to watch the Animated 5 Step Test
The 5 step test should be used to determine when a child is ready to transition from a booster seat to the adult seatbelt.

For more detailed information on keeping children safe, including restraint choice, correct use, and other situations contact your local Kidsafe office, fitting service or visit our webpage.
Information for road safety professionals
The guideline recommendations on pages 33-79 of this document were approved by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) on the 27th of November 2020, under Section 14A of the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992. In approving the guideline recommendations, NHMRC considers that they meet the NHMRC standard for clinical practice guidelines.
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Download Guidelines Document
This document contains an executive summary plus all the research evidence to support the guidelines recommendations. It includes guidelines covering choice of an appropriate restraint, correct use of restraints, seating position, and other less common situations.

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Download Key changes in the 2021 Guidelines
This fact sheet shows the key changes from the 2013 guidelines.

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Download Social Media Campaign Resources
Best Practice Child Restraint Guidelines are supported by a Social Media campaign highlighting the Top 10 messages. The users guide provides an overview for professionals on how these campaign graphics can be shared. For copies of the campaign messaging images please contact Kidsafe’s Child Restraint Guidelines Representative

For a copy of the technical supporting documents for the Best Practice Child Car Restraint Guidelines, which include the Administrative Report, Technical Report, Dissemination Plan, and Guidelines documents Fair Use Policy visit www.neura.edu.au/crs-guidelines
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