Aldi to trial children’s seatbelts in shopping trolleys after mum’s campaign over her son’s fall
ALDI is set to trial seat belts in shopping trolleys after a passionate campaign to improve safety for families.
Mum Claire O'Callaghan said her nine-month-old son was lucky to escape serious head injuries when he fell out of an Aldi shopping trolley and hit his head.
The 38-year-old said she was horrified when her little boy, Emmet, "launched" himself out of the trolley and came crashing down, hitting his head on the hard floor,
She joined fellow mum Jodie Shawcross to campaign for seat belts in the supermarket giant's trolleys, with Ms Shawcross warning that the seats were an "accident waiting to happen".
Aldi has now confirmed they will be trialling seat belts across a number of stores this month.
Mrs O'Callaghan said that it was only thanks to her son's soft hood, which cushioned his fall, that he was not injured.
The hair dresser said that she did not want compensation for what happened - but instead simply wanted change.
She said: "I called the area manager back and he said he thought what had happened was awful.
"He rang me back a few days ago and told me they were rolling out belts throughout the Chelmsford area in January.
"He said he would get back to me in February about whether they're going to have them in all their stores."
She added: "If this leads to positive steps then that's really good.
"I'm not looking for compensation or anything - I just want change."
She said she was determined not to let her little boy in an
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The mum, who had been shopping in the Ashby Leicestershire Aldi store when her son fell out of a trolley, said she had been overwhelmed by the response to her story.
She said that the Aldi's area manager delivered toys to Emmet.
Mrs O'Callaghan said: "While I was out the area manager came around to my house with lots of toys for Emmet because of what happened. I was never after anything like that so I'm donating them to the Sure Start centre here."
She said that it had been a "miracle" that her son had not been seriously injured.
Recounting the traumatic incident at the time, she said: "Both of us [her and her mother] were with the trolley the whole time. My mum passed me some butter and I literally just turned to get it.
"As I turned around he had launched himself out of the trolley and while I managed to break his fall in an attempt to catch him, he hit the floor.
"Even though he looked fine, we went to the doctors to check him out but luckily there was nothing wrong with him."
She said that at the time, an Aldi worker had told her that the trolleys satisfied EU regulations for the safety of their trolleys.
She added: "All the other supermarkets seem to have them so what will it take for Aldi to follow suit, a child dying or getting brain damage?”
An Aldi spokesperson firmed that the belts were being trialled this month in a number of stores.
She said: "We are currently trialling child seat straps on our trolleys at a small number of stores.
"The results of this trial will be evaluated and a decision on whether to introduce this feature to all our trolleys will be made in due course."
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