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Child Car Seat Cover

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How we’re keeping children safe with our child car seat cover.

In New Zealand there are no official recommendations for replacing child car seats after an accident, so AMI is referring to international best-practice safety standards and criteria to determine whether a child car seat needs to be replaced. This includes the following:

  • The car-seat shows visible damage from the accident including cracking, creasing, stretched webbing, broken tether stitching, stress marks or broken pieces.
  • There is broken vehicle glass in the seat or its attached parts.
  • The vehicle has been involved in an impact/accident defined as moderate or severe, which included the following:
    • The vehicle could not be driven away from the crash site.
    • The vehicle door closest to the child restraint was damaged.
    • A passenger was injured during the accident.
    • Airbags in the vehicle were deployed.
    • If the vehicle was towed from the scene of the accident.
    • If there was impact damage to the closest door (the rear passenger door or hatch/cargo in the third-row seat).

If you’ve been involved in a car accident and it’s deemed no longer safe to use your child’s car seat, then we’ll replace it with a brand-new one. The old seat will be recycled, so it’s no longer in circulation – keeping our most precious passengers safe.

Frequently Asked Questions

The replacement child car seat cover applies to AMI customers with current Full Cover, Third Party, Fire & Theft, and Third-Party Car Insurance. For Third Party, Fire & Theft and Third-Party policies, cover for child car seats only applies where there is cover for your vehicle E.g. Innocent party protection bonus cover

If there is broken vehicle glass in the child seat or its attached parts, then it will be replaced. You’ll just need to pay your standard Car policy excess.

Baby On The Move is our preferred supplier for child car seat replacements. They’re a nationwide franchise owned and operated by experienced Mums and Dads. They run their businesses from retail outlets across New Zealand and are 100% Kiwi owned and operated. Their main emphasis is on child safety and they only stock high-quality products. They also provide a fitting and sitting session for customers purchasing child restraints.

SeatSmart is the recycling programme we use to ensure each child car seat gets recycled. Managed by 3R Group, they collect, dismantle, and recover or repurpose old/damaged child car seats for alternative use.

SeatSmart makes it easy for New Zealanders to have their child car seats recycled and the components put to good use, all while reducing what gets sent to landfill. They’re improving child safety by removing damaged or expired child car seats from circulation.

The child car seats are dismantled by Social Enterprise, a paid service that provides employment for those with disabilities or are disadvantaged or marginalised. SeatSmart also partner with the Department of Corrections providing opportunities for offenders to learn new skills.

The plastic is recycled into products for the building industry. Metal parts are simply taken to metal recyclers, and the harnesses are used in the production of recycled bags.

If the child car seat is deemed no longer safe for use by our assessors, we have a responsibility to make sure it doesn’t put any child at risk through continued use. We can ensure this by retrieving the child car seat, dismantling it and having the pieces recycled.

Once your claim has been accepted, our supplier Baby On The Move will get in touch to organise your replacement and recycle your old child car seat. They’ll take care of the swap, arrange collection of your damaged child car seat and organise the best way to get your new child car seat to you – either by delivery or pick-up. We’ll cover any related collection, shipping or recycling costs.

We’re serious about child safety, and if we replace a child car seat before retrieving the unsafe one, it may continue to be used and there’s a chance we’d lose our opportunity to take it out of circulation.

If the child car seat is deemed no longer safe for use by our assessors, we have a responsibility to make sure it doesn’t put any child at risk through continued use. We can ensure this by retrieving the child car seat, dismantling it and having the pieces recycled.