British Car Seats in Canada
 

Hi all,
Sorry if this has already been covered elsewhere. I am not yet savvy on how to do searches on this forum. I was wondering if anyone can give me advice re our children's car seats. We brought our British seats to Toronto when we moved here on 28th August. Our infant has a Mamas and Papas Primo Viaggio and our girl (4 years) has a Britax Evolve (Both relatively expensive seats). However we were told today we should check our seats are legal because they might not be the same standards. Now we are worried! We know that the seats are v secure and are happy from the research we did in UK that they are v safe. However, we don't want to end up in trouble if stopped or worse still if we have an accident (god forbid) not be covered by insurance. I have tried to google search but cannot find a difinitive answer.
Please Help!!! :confused:
Thanks

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

Try 'Ontario Car Seat laws' on Google:

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/saf...t/choose.shtml

Unless it has a a Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (CMVSS) sticker it cannot be used.

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

I also have 3 UK car seats, they are not legal here, they have no tether straps to start with, but the biggy is it is not approved by canadian standards! Nor do they have expiration dates..

I use my car seats all the time, they were safe in UK so why not safe here? I keep them in my suv and they are grand parent car seats. I am sure I would be charged if stopped, but I have 3 young grand kids needing car seats and I use them. we cannot afford 3 new car seats..and they were new in UK...

So decision is totally up to you...

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

Ooh, you're a rebel without a cause!

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

lol well it just seems to me if it is legal in one country how another can gouge more money out of parents and grand parents for the same thing, I also admit I used a walker for my grand daughters as well.........also illegal in Canada....they never hurt themselves or fell down the stairs..maybe I am to old to change my ways, who knows...they worked with my son and he survived and all my grand daughters will as well..........not a rebel lol just old..

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

Lots of stuff is different, it feels like living abroad in a foreign country sometimes, what with drinking age being 19 and no yearly MOT on cars its a wonder that Canada has lasted so long without UK laws and regulations being enforced here. ;)

Ohh, they have pushed the no cell phone while driving law. Lots more to follow no doubt as Canada becomes, civilized and adopts more of them westernized ways.

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

That made me chuckle, on a side note my sister had said that certain babys bottles that you can buy in the UK are banned in Canada due to the chemicals used in the plastic that can lead to cancer. So Im sure there must some good basis to some of the laws and regulations

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

It's almost certain that they'll be illegal. Should you get caught, they can be confiscated and potentially you can be fined. That's a risk you take, just like speeding, driving whilst on the phone, etc, etc.

However, I just want to make one thing clear. I've been working in insurance for 15 years now, and I can confirm that it is complete BS that claims wont be covered because you used an "illegal" car seat. Rather than propagate this nonsense, I challenge anyone to provide any evidence/reasoning/ or even anecdotal evidence of this ever happening.

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

Agree, a claim being covered under your own auto policy for the damage to your car is not going to be affected because of non compliance with car seat rules.

However, and I have not seen a lawyer run with this yet, but in third party liability/tort claims, if a child is injured , and the car seat they were in does not meet the laws and the defendants could prove that this may have had an impact on the severity of the injury then the driver of the car the child was in could "potentially" be found to have contributed to the injury.

Like I said v unlikely but not impossible, there would be a whole other side to then research ie differences between uk and Canadian car seats and overall effectiveness for safety etc.

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

Scuse me popping in from Oz. I don't have a kids but I know an expat family who moved here with two youngsters.

Their british seats were inexpensive and of high quality and would no doubt exceed Aussie safety standards.

However, without the Aussie stamp on them, they are illegal.

Aussie child car seats are rubbish and very, very expensive.

Add to that they are all made in China anyway.........

Very annoying that sort of thing.

Just thought I'd let you know that it isn't only Canada where this sort of stupidity is rife....:)

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

The other issue you can have is on the plane flying over - if using transat or air Canada sometimes they only accept Canadian stamped child seats to be used for kids in the cabin!

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

If the driver was at fault, had illegal child seats, does this not increase the likelihood of subrogation if the child was injured, sued the driver through the drivers insurer and got paid out. It would be quite possible that the insurer would try to subrogate the claim to the driver would it not?

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

Only if it could be proven that the seat's construction/design aggravated the injuries. Unless all those that design UK car seats are incompetent, rather than not having the appropriate sticker, this is unlikely to happen.

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

The fine is $240 and 3 demerit points if you are caught using a non-compliant seat, or even the wrong seat, or even the right seat, but incorrectly (assuming the officer knows the ins and outs, it's not actually in their basic training I believe).

I think the differences probably held more weight when the cars were more different too, but many models are standard worldwide now across vehicle manufacturers too.

I wouldn't use them here, but that's more because I'm scared of rule breaking (and can't afford the fine) than anything else.

Re: British Car Seats in Canada
 

As I said earlier, lol, sorry know it all and all that :p