World's First Child Car Seat With Airbags On Sale in U.K.

Maxi-Cosi has launched the world's first child car seat with built-in airbags, and it's on sale now in the U.K.

The AxissFix Air is the award-winning car seat specialist's new flagship model and has been developed with mobile airbag company, Helite.

The seat, which is suitable for children between 61 and 105 centimeters (2 feet and 3 feet, 5 inches) tall, features Isofix tethering hooks and a 360-degree rotating base for easier installation, plus two small airbags located in the shoulder pads of the harness connected to a CO2 cartridge. In the event of a collision, a seat-mounted sensor is instantly triggered and the airbags inflate within 0.05 seconds.

The chair, when tested in forward collisions alongside other non-airbag-equipped rivals, has been shown to reduce the amount of force on a child's head and neck vertebrae by a staggering 55 percent.

"A few years ago, we began investigating how airbags could better protect a child's head and neck in forward-facing car seats," explains Andrew Ratcliffe, managing director of Maxi-Cosi. "Successful applications in airbag technology, such as airbag jackets for motorcyclists, gave us inspiration and this ground-breaking technology for the next generation of forward-facing car seats is the outcome."

While Maxi-Cosi says that there are no plans as yet for a wider range of airbag-equipped child car seats, it seems inevitable that the further deployment of products like this will help to reduce the numbers of seriously injured toddlers that are reported in annual car accident statistics. The key now will be to make the technology more affordable for more families.

The Maxi-Cosi AxissFix Air is priced from £550 (about $783) and is available to buy from all reputable parenting stores.