A DERRY MOTHER of two has developed the latest in-car safety feature for children – an inflatable travel car booster seat.
Around 30,000 of Grainne Kelly’s innovative product are currently being manufactured in China and yesterday, as part of road safety week, children at Chapel Road Primary School in Derry tested Ms Kelly’s inflatable booster seat which she has called BubbleBum.
“It’s already passed all of the relevant safety tests and it has been approved to ECE Regulation R44/04 level and is designed for use with a standard three-point adult seatbelt,” said Ms Kelly. “But the big plus is that because it’s inflatable, simply let the air out and the BubbleBum can be carried in a handbag, a child’s schoolbag or in a coat pocket. It means parents can have a child seat with them at all times.
“In terms of foreign travel, the BubbleBum can be stored flat in hand luggage and there’s no more arriving at car hire desks to find they don’t have a suitable child booster seat. As well as that rather than pay airline fees for taking a car seat parents can now carry BubbleBum in their ordinary hand luggage.
“My sons Fintan (9) and Lorcan (6) together with their friends in Chapel Road Primary School helped to name and design the look of the seat. They all give it the thumbs up over the old-style rigid booster seat.
Children are 70 per cent safer in a car when they’re sitting on a booster seat.
An added safety feature of the BubbleBum is that the safety strap goes across the child’s lap instead of the abdomen which will reduce the numbers of abdominal injuries,” said Ms Kelly. “Ultimately I hope to bring a greater level of safety to children as well as jobs to Derry because I hope to eventually move the manufacturing and administration processes here.”