Car Seat Testing and the Swedish Plus Test
All car seats that are for sale in Europe have passed the standard ECE R129 tests.
Some have gone through additional testing by the ADAC (the German Motoring Organisation), and many of the rear facing car seats that are available on this website have passed the Swedish Plus Test.
ECE R129
R129 testing includes a frontal impact at 32mph, a rear impact at 18mph, a side-impact test at 15mph and a roll over simulation test. The buckle and harness are tested repeatedly to ensure they can take the stress and strain of everyday use, the buckle is tested to ensure it takes a certain force to open and that it can still be opened even when the harness is fully tightened around the child. And there are additional assessments done on ease of fitting and use, and on the instructions.
R44/04
These tests were used from 1981 until the end of Regulation 44 in 2024. The final revision was 04, so if you still have an R44 seat, the orange sticker will say R44/04 or show an approval number that starts with 04.
R44 test speeds were the same as R129, but there was no mandatory side impact test. A lot of manufacturers conducted their own tests which did include SIP testing.
Apart from side impact testing which is mandatory under R129, the biggest difference is the dummies that are used. R44/04 used the older style P-dummies, whereas for R129 the more advanced Q-dummies are used.
P and Q-dummies
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the P-dummies were developed, they were a series of child crash test dummies that came in six sizes; newborn, 9 months, 18 months, 3 years, 6 years and 10 years. Only two of the P-dummies (9m and 3y) had optional neck load sensors! The P-series only had sensors in the head and back and modelling clay on the abdomen to measure penetration.
In 1993 the International Child Dummy Working Group started developing the Q-series of child dummies as successors to the P-series. The Q-dummies differ considerably from the P-dummies. Not only do they have 32 sensors to represent the human body and how it moves far more accurately, they were also made to be used in both front and side impact testing, making them the first multi-directional child dummies. Unlike the P-series, Q-dummies do have neck sensors, but these are not used in child seat testing. The only test that does take the neck loads into account is the Swedish Plus Test.
ADAC
Twice a year the German Motoring Organisation ADAC, carries out crash tests on many new car seats that are available in Europe. ADAC uses Q-dummies and tests car seats at higher speeds than the standard R44 and R129 tests. The frontal crash test is done at 40mph and the side impact test at 37mph.
ADAC also tests car seats for ease of use and child comfort, and this can lower the overall result even if the seat got a high safety score. ADAC's website says: "The overall rating only relates to safety and ease of use, with the lower rating tipping the scale". That means that a car seat that has done very well in the crash tests can still get a low rating if the testers consider the seat to be difficult to install, or if they think that the child may be uncomfortable or have a restricted view out of the window. And the opposite is also true. A car seat that doesn't get a high score in the safety tests, but is easy to install and looks comfortable, gets a higher overall rating based on its ease of use and comfort results. And that overall rating doesn't reflect the fact that the safety result may not have been very high.
Which? Magazine uses the ADAC results in the car seat ratings they publish every year.
The P-dummies that were used in R44 testing were not capable of measuring neck loads, and although R129 and ADAC now use Q-dummies, the neck loads are still not taken into account. This explains why some forward facing car seats get a higher ADAC rating than some rear facing ones, and why R44 car seats can be used forward facing from 9kg. If neck load measurements were used, the ratings would be very different. The tests that forward facing car seats pass don't show the high neck loads, and therefore they don't only appear to be safer than they actually are, but also the safety benefits of rear facing go completely unnoticed.
Swedish Plus Test
The Swedish Transport Institute (VTI) perform an additional test called the Swedish Plus Test. Its predecessor, the T-Standard Test was first developed in 1975, seven years before R44 car seat tests were mandatory in Europe. This makes Sweden the world leaders in car seat testing.
