Infant seat crash tests January 5, 2007
For the parents out there, please check out the just released Consumer Reports study that tests the safety of rear-facing infant car seats. A key summary:
Cars and car seats can’t be sold unless they can withstand a 30-mph frontal crash. But most cars are also tested in a 35-mph frontal crash and in a 38-mph side crash. Car seats aren’t.
One of the seats they tested (the Evenflo Discovery, which I think is the one we used with all 3 kids) didn’t even meet the federal 30-mph standards and they are trying to get it recalled. 7 of 12 seats failed in the 35-mph crash and 8 of 12 failed in the 38-mph side crash. “Failed” in this case means they separated from their base, twisted, threw the dummy in the air, caused injuries, etc.
Interestingly, they had a lot of problem with LATCH restraints and found that using vehicle seat belts worked better than LATCH for many of the seats. Here’s a link to their ratings if you want more info. If you’ve got an infant car seat, please give this a look.
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