PARENTS are invited to get a thorough safety check for their child car seats at a special event in York next week.

Pampers, in association with car seat manufacturer Britax and RoSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), is launching a car seat safety initiative to drive home the importance of correctly fitting car seats. Parents are invited to Toys R Us in Clifton Moor on Tuesday between 9.30am and 4pm to have their car seat checked, for free, by Britax experts at the Pampers "Fit Stops".

Experts discovered at a similar event last year that a staggering 71 per cent of car seats were fitted incorrectly. Of the car seats checked, 55 per cent needed some form of adjustment such as tightening the seat belts and 13 per cent were actually incompatible with the make of car.."

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at RoSPA said: "RoSPA takes the issue of car seat safety very seriously and we would urge parents to pop down to their local Toys R Us on Tuesday.

"It's vital for parents to get their baby's car seat checked by experts, The Pampers "Fit Stops" make it very easy for parents to do so."

For further details visit www.pampers.com or www.childcarseats.org.uk.

Updated: 09:45 Friday, August 01, 2003