Not doing this could land you with a £5,000 fine, a motoring expert has warned.Not doing this could land you with a £5,000 fine, a motoring expert has warned.

Parents are being urged to do a quick 30-second car check before pulling away to ensure their vehicle’s child locks are switched on. 

The feature allows drivers to control who can open rear doors from inside the vehicle – and it’s an important one, because kids can be pretty inquisitive and nobody wants the door to their family car being swung open while doing 70mph on the motorway. 

Graham Conway, from vehicle leasing company Select Car Leasing, said: “Car child locks are an essential safety feature designed to prevent children from opening vehicle doors while the car is in motion.”

This is important for a few reasons: first and foremost, to protect your child from injuring themselves during transit, as well as to stop them from being able to jump out and run off if your car is static. 

While there are no specific laws covering the use of child locks in this country, Conway said it is up to drivers to ensure the safety of all passengers.

“The Road Traffic Act and seatbelt laws impose a duty of care on them, which extends to ensuring that child passengers are securely restrained,” he said.

“And if, for example, a child lock was not engaged and your son or daughter opened the door while you were travelling, there is a very real chance you could be charged with careless driving, which can carry with it a fine of up to £5,000.”

How to find the child lock in your car

For modern cars, this lock is usually turned on through a switch on the dashboard or driver’s door controls.

For older models it’s more of a manual task, but only takes a matter of seconds.

Conway explained you need to open the rear doors and look for a switch, “which may look like a white or metal button or knob”.

“Very often there is some sort of diagram next to it to indicate how to turn it off and on. This is best done with a key or screwdriver, flicking it to and from the active position,” he said. 
“Once this is done, close the door and test it by attempting to open it from the inside.”
Conway recommended disabling window controls as well, to keep little passengers safe. 
“While allowing them to open and close windows is not the risk you have with car doors, there is the potential for injury if they stick a hand or arm out of the opening and it strikes something outside the vehicle,” he added.
“Also, they could get a limb stuck in the window if they then try to close it.
“Most cars will have a switch close to the master window controls on the driver’s door which will render the rear window controls inactive.”
If you do deploy child locks, safety experts urge caregivers to speak to their children about how they can get out of the car in the event of an emergency. 
Kids and Car Safety recommend telling them they can: climb out of the front doors or, to get someone’s attention, honk the horn or turn on the hazard lights. 
Safe travels!

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