Two child car seats fail our tests, causing crash-test dummies to fly through the air
Principal researcher/writer at Which? delivering award-winning health, baby and safety investigations, including our annual sunscreen tests.
Which? is warning parents about two car seats from leading car seat brands after our tough crash tests exposed failures in their safety.
The video above shows serious safety failures during testing of the Axkid Minikid Core and the Britax Römer Baby-Safe Pro + Vario Base 5Z.
Choose a car seat that passed our crash tests, is easy to install, and is comfortable for your baby or child by checking out our best baby and child car seats.
What happened during testing?
Axkid Minikid Core
During the frontal impact tests with a dummy representing a 6-year-old child (Q6), and with the seat installed rearward-facing, the support leg retracted with the seat back in both upright and reclined positions.
Once the support leg retracts, the seat loses a critical part of its connection to the vehicle floor, allowing excessive movement of the seat and child during impact.
In the reclined position test, the harness also broke away from the seat shell, meaning the crash test dummy was no longer fully restrained.
These failures represent a significant risk of serious injury to your child.
Britax Römer Baby-Safe Pro + Vario Base 5Z
In frontal impact testing, with a dummy representing an 18-month-old child (Q1½) and the seat installed rearward-facing and reclined, the harness buckle failed and opened, causing the crash test dummy to come loose.
This means the harness no longer restrained the child, which, again, represents a major risk of injury.
When the seat was not reclined, or when it was installed using the vehicle seatbelt rather than the Isofix base, this issue didn't occur.
What should you do if you own one of these seats?
We recommend that you stop using the Axkid Minikid Core seat immediately, as we believe the risk to your child is too great.
If you own the Britax Römer Baby-Safe Pro + Vario Base 5Z, we recommend that you don't use the seat with the Isofix Vario Base 5Z in a reclined position until the manufacturer has resolved the issue.
However, it is safe to use if you keep the seat upright, or install it into your vehicle without the base and use the adult seatbelt. The seat passed our tests in both of these configurations.
What do the manufacturers say?
When Axkid was informed of the test outcome, it attributed the support-leg failure to excessive seat movement during impact, which caused the base to strike the support leg with enough force to release its adjustment mechanism.
Axkid says this is inconsistent with its own internal tests, but takes the finding seriously. It says the harness-buckle finding (when the seat is reclined) has never occurred in its testing.
The company told us that the Minikid Core continues to meet all applicable legal requirements and has demonstrated strong safety performance across multiple test conditions.
Axkid - voluntary recall
'[However] later testing identified results that do not meet all of our own stringent requirements,' says Daniel Lundgren, Safety and Compliance Manager at Axkid. 'Minikid Core has successfully completed all required approvals, but our own standards go beyond the legal requirements. That is why we have decided to initiate a voluntary recall and replace all affected Minikid Core seats free of charge.'
Customers should register via an online form to receive a free replacement seat.
Britax Römer - investigating further
Britax Römer says it is working to pinpoint the problem and plans to take corrective action as soon as it identifies the cause.
It says the result is unexpected, given that its own full-sized vehicle tests and development tests, carried out under the same conditions as our tests, showed no abnormalities.
Britax Römer points out that the harness buckle that failed is a widely used industry-standard part sourced from a common supplier and used by multiple manufacturers.
It states that any decision on replacement, repair, recall or other action requires completion of its technical assessment.
Which? car seat testing
Which? carries out its car seat testing as part of European consortium of consumer groups and motoring organisations. Our tests are derived from crash test scenarios by Euro NCAP, the organisation that carries out crash testing on cars.
Our tests are severe, and tougher than the standard regulations for R129-approved car seats, using higher - but realistic - loads on the child-restraint system.
The test is well accepted by car seat manufacturers across the UK and Europe, and many develop their seats to meet our exacting standards.
To find out more about our testing, read our guide on how we test baby and child car seats
