Attention, danger!

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The Peg Perego Viaggio Twist child seat flew wildly around in the test.(Bild: ADAC)

Hands off this child seat! The ÖAMTC and its partner organizations have found serious safety deficiencies: A part broke off in the test and the seat, including the child dummy strapped into it, flew around. The product in question was the Peg Perego Viaggio Twist with the manufacturer's Isofix base.

"During the frontal crash test with the seat mounted against the direction of travel, the support foot broke off the Isofix base at the joint. The seat shell then detached from the base and flung forward together with the 15-kilogram dummy, which could lead to serious injuries in a real accident," explains ÖAMTC technician Steffan Kerbl.

The test was similar for the seat installed in the direction of travel: Here too, according to the ÖAMTC, the support leg broke in a frontal crash. The forces released tore apart the plastic housing of the base and caused the dummy to be thrown far upwards and forwards.

Advance warning for safety
The test results of the other candidates have not yet been published, but the clubs felt compelled to issue an advance warning about the dangerous child seat and take the manufacturer to task. As a result, sales were temporarily suspended. However, there is no warning on the manufacturer's website.

Peg Perego Viaggio Twist(Bild: ADAC/Ralph Wagner)

Anyone who has already purchased the product should contact the retailer or the manufacturer's service contact. However, there is no right to return or exchange products that have already been purchased - customers would only have this right if legal requirements were not met. However, this is not the case. Nevertheless, the club expressly advises against buying the product.

Unsafe product on sale - how is that possible?
The child seat with such a poor rating has been approved since October 2023. So although it meets the legal requirements, it did not pass the test unscathed. How did this happen? Quite simply: different test criteria.

In order for a child seat to be sold, it has to pass less stringent tests than those of the car driver clubs. According to the ÖAMTC, these frontal impact tests are based on the Euro NCAP crash tests in terms of accident severity. "Significantly higher forces act on the products than in the legally prescribed approval tests for child seats," explains the club. "However, tests in recent years have shown that many products offer good protection even with the higher requirements of the consumer protection test."

So the question must rather be: Why are the legal regulations so lax?