MORE than half of all children’s car seats checked by police as part of a crackdown to help parents keep their youngster’s safe on the roads were not fitted properly.

Nearly three in every five car seats looked at by Hampshire police as part of UN Road Safety Week were found to be incorrectly fitted.

Of the 193 child car seats checked by officers at several free events across Hampshire, only 36 per cent were found to be fitted correctly.

At the event in West Quay, only three out of 25 seats checked were fitted correctly and of 35 checked at the event in Tesco Millbrook, only right were given the thumbs up by officers.

The most common problem were belts being too loose, which could mean that the seat can move around, leaving the child insecure.

Other issues ranged from loose or incorrect harness heights to incorrectly routed belts.

Sergeant Rob Heard from Hampshire Constabulary’s Road Safety Unit said: “The events were free to people to attend and were extremely popular not only with parents popping in to have their child seats checked but also grandparents.

“I was surprised we found so many child seats incorrectly fitted. Some of the faults were minor, but even with the best seat, if it’s not correctly fitted then it could cause serious or fatal injuries to the child.”