The “Bin the Booster” campaign is British Britax’s gift to the internet, much like Graco’s buckle recall—it keeps popping up in people’s feeds causing unnecessary panic and bewilderment on this side of the pond. In a simple crash test video, Britax compares a backless booster (portable booster cushion as they call them over there) to a high-back booster. In this video, the child dummy sitting on the backless booster rotates around the shoulder belt while the child dummy sitting in the high-back booster remains properly positioned.
It’s a marketing tool. Britax only makes high-back boosters in Europe (the backs can be removed in the U.S.). There’s nothing abnormal about the way either dummy reacts in this crash test. Crash tests are very scary to watch—the video slows things down to a speed to which we can comprehend what’s happening. If we were to watch it at full speed, at the end, we’d likely think, “OK, great,” and move on to the next thing. Slow motion gives great impact, doesn’t it? Probably the most important thing to notice, however, is that there are 2 different types of dummies used, and this can greatly affect motion in a crash test. Simply placing the stiffer dummy in the high-back booster makes it seem more appealing because it will have less movement around the seat belt. (As much as I’d like to take credit for noticing that, I am not a Euro dummy specialist. Car-seat.org member _juune pointed it out in one of our threads on this topic.) Once you’re aware of this tidbit, you can see the dummies are shaped differently.
There are some schools of thought that high-back boosters provide better protection, especially in side impacts. It makes sense, right? By having head wings filled with EPS or EPP foam surrounding your child’s head and torso in a crash, there’s something to take the impact and spread the force instead of having their head hit the door or window or side pillar. On the other hand, having that back on the seat puts the child several inches forward on the vehicle seat, closer to the front seat and side pillar. In a crash, the child could much more easily hit the front seat or pillar, especially in a small vehicle. Are we starting to overthink things here? Maybe I can help settle your thoughts with this quote from a study done by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (bolding mine):
This study reconfirms previous reports that BPB seats reduce the risk for injury in children 4 through 8 years of age by studying a greater percentage of children aged 6 to 8 years than previous studies. After adjustment for potential confounders, children who were aged 4 to 8 and using BPB seats were 45% less likely to sustain injuries than similarly aged children who were using the vehicle seat belt. Among children who were restrained in BPB seats, there was no evidence of a difference in the performance of backless versus high-back boosters.
Let’s also add side curtain airbags into the equation. Side curtain airbags are fabulous safety devices for all members of the family, including kids in carseats. These airbags deploy straight down the roofline of the vehicle to the bottom of the windowsill, protecting the head area of passengers. A child sitting on a backless booster will be boosted up to have the protection of the side curtain airbags. Of course, so will a child in a high-back booster. This is assuming your vehicle has side curtain airbags, which not all vehicles on the road do.
So what can I do to make my kid safer in a booster?
- Use your child’s harnessed seat until they outgrow it, which is when their shoulders reach the top harness slots, the weight limit is reached, or the tops of their ears are over the top of the carseat. If that happens before age 5, consider buying another harnessed seat with higher limits.
- Use a booster seat. All the cool kids are doing it! Your child simply won’t fit safely in a seat belt made to fit an adult until they are adult-sized. Period. Boosters raise kids up so that seat belts fit them over their sturdy bones and are more comfortable.
- Use a high-back booster in the beginning. New booster riders like the feeling of being in a carseat yet having more freedom, plus they have a place to rest their heads when they sleep.
- Switch to a backless booster when they outgrow the high-back booster. Yep, kids grow and they grow fast. That high-back booster, even the tallest one on the market, will be outgrown by height before your child outgrows the need for a booster. So switch to using a backless until they can pass the 5-step test:
1. Can sit with bum all the way back.
2. Knees bend at the vehicle seat edge.
3. Shoulder belt centered over the shoulder.
4. Lap belt touches the thighs.
5. Can stay this way the entire ride.
Article: https://www.life360.com/blog/backless-booster-seats-unsafe/
I think this video from Which? is a better side impact view of a highback booster vs. a backless booster
Video: http://www.theguardian.com/money/video/2010/jun/18/crash-test-child-car-seats
This nationwide campaign, supported with powerful crash test footage, urges parents to get rid of any booster cushion seats they might have and opt for highback boosters with head and side impact protection to ensure children are safe and secure on their travels this summer – and beyond.
Consumer Reports did testing and the highbacks got good ratings, but low back always went down in safety. Soooo, made me nervous. We have highbacks that go to 63″ which is pretty good. I think in general every step down in a seat is a step down in safety. I know I’d be THRILLED if I could ride with foam surrounding me and headwings, bonus for rear-facing! But realistically, there is no way.
Carseat companies CAN do a better job of promoting highbacks. So many parents get a 3 or 4 YO a lowback, and some even have babyish themes! I guess the whole idea of using a lowback by choice makes no sense to me, provided the child has a high-back that fits AND it fits in the car.
Yep, yep, yep. Those “Cars” and Princess-themed backless boosters make me cringe because I don’t know any 8+ year olds that want to ride in those. Unfortunately, like Julie said, one of the most popular boosters, the TurboBooster, is so short that taking the back off is something that most parents have to do by the time their kids are about 8. Another thing a lot of parents don’t even realize with their high-back boosters is that the back actually raises up to grow with their child. You’d be amazed at how common a problem that is.
For when kids outgrow the high-back booster, Safety 1st really hit the nail on the head with the Incognito in designing it for big kids: it’s vehicle seat-colored and for 60-120 lbs. Perfect!
Great analysis … What is Britax’s ulterior motive? Britax have sold exactly this type of backless booster for decades. And thanks to them, the number of childhood deaths and injuries has reduced significantly.
Now they are telling us to “bin the booster”! Is this a big corporation wanting us all to buy bigger, more complex, more inconvenient and more expensive new products?
The video is Britax’s own test in their own facility. I’ve seen hundreds of truly independent crash test videos with backless boosters where the child is restrained properly; they are not scary like this. Are we sure Britax did not set this up to look bad?
Boosters are inexpensive, practical and simple products designed to provide convenient and straight forward installation. They ensure good vehicle seat belt positioning onto the child and are designed to conform to the most universally accepted global car seat regulations; including the UK.
There are other products on the market that offer different features that may exceed the statutory standards; we have used them with my own relatives. But this does not mean that backless boosters, which are a mainstay of child car safety worldwide, are suddenly dangerous and should be binned.
This campaign can only increase the number of journeys where children travel without any protection.
Shame on you Britax!
Full disclosure: we invented mifold, the most advanced, compact and portable booster seat in the world. It’s more than 10x smaller than a regular booster seat and it’s just as safe … check it out on http://www.mifold.com
Britax *has* done a great deal to advance child passenger safety throughout their history. Certainly having kids sit in high-back boosters does seem like it would reduce the risk of injury, but we don’t have any statistics telling us that. No one has funded a study on it here in the US and even if someone outside the US did a study on it, we couldn’t apply those stats here because the crash tests are done so differently.
I do wonder who set up their crash test since they used different dummies in each seat (marketers vs. techs). It’s like comparing apples to oranges; if they had used the same Q6 dummy in the backless booster as they did in the high-back booster, would it have been less scary of a video? I guess we should be happy they didn’t use any type of 10 yr old dummy because those are just plain horrid to watch, lol!
I maintain that backless boosters have a very real place in the child passenger safety world. They aren’t dangerous when used with appropriately sized and aged kids.
” That high-back booster, even the tallest one on the market, will be outgrown by height before your child outgrows the need for a booster.” This is what irks me about this ‘campaign’. Seriously, high back boosters have been too short and haven’t gotten taller for a lot of years (The Turbo is the most popular, and after more than, what, 13 years, it’s not taller). Britax at least could stand by their highback only stance if they only sold Frontiers with 65″ height limits, but that’s not quite realistic. So how many parents are going to just ditch the highback thinking that a backless is unsafe? I hope none do! I also hope this silly meme comes and goes as fast as ‘rear to a year’ did for Graco (introduced well after the AAP recommended RF seats be made to 45lbs for 4 year olds in 2002)
Amen, Julie!