Swedish Plus Test: Why this Child Car Seat Crash Test is so important

The Swedish Plus Test is a voluntary test by VTI, the National Road and Transport Research Institute, on car seats intended for the Swedish market. This test is conducted in addition to the mandatory testing and approval governed by the ECE Regulations and is not carried out anywhere else in Europe.

In a Plus Test, the forces subjected to a child's neck in a frontal collision are measured. A Plus tested car seat ensures that your child is not exposed to life-threatening high neck forces in a frontal collision. According to Axkid there are three main factors that make the Plus Test hard to pass, with many car seats ending up in ruins in the test.

1. Higher speed than normal compared to the speed used by our European standards ECE R44 and R129, also called “i-Size”.
2. Very short braking distance, which makes the impact on the car seat brutal, the shorter the braking distance, the more violent the forces become.
3. To make the Plus Test even more difficult, you not only use higher speed and shorter braking distance but also carefully measure the forces in crash test dummy’s neck with sensors.

Watch the video below to see the difference in rear facing and forward facing car seats in the Swedish Plus Test:

A visit to the VTI facility by representatives of mypram.com describes the results of the neck load in both a forward facing and rear facing car seat in a frontal crash. The permissible load is 1220 Newton in the Plus Test and the forward facing seat had a maximum neck load of 1852 Newton, which exceeded the permissible load. The rear facing seat had a maximum neck load of 394 Newton and is well below the permissible load limit. Therefore forward facing car seats will not have any chance to pass the Plus Test as the neck forces are too high and it is not possible to guarantee that the child is not exposed to life threatening high neck forces.

EU Regulation child car seat crash tests are conducted with speeds of either 50 to 55km/h for frontal collisions and 30km/h for rear impact collisions, speeds that most of us drive much faster at depending on whether you live in a rural or urban area. The much stricter requirements to pass the Swedish Plus Test as opposed to the EU car seat crash tests is the main reason why we stock and have the largest range of Swedish Plus Tested seats in Ireland.

If you would like to see this full range click here.

Feel free to contact us if you are looking for a new car seat, we would be only happy to help you find a safe car seats that suits your child, vehicle and family needs. Contact us on info@rearfacing.ie or call 0870543886.