It’s like Déjà vu. All over again.
As we previously reported on CarseatBlog – Consumer Reports made some wild claims about the Orbit Baby infant carseat back in August. They claimed that the carseat detached from its base during testing and labeled the popular (and pricey) product a “Don’t Buy – Safety Risk”. Orbit Baby fought back and claimed that their own safety compliance testing contradicted the CR test results. They also claimed, and CR acknowledged, that the infant seats were not installed according to the directions. All this led to massive confusion as consumers were left wondering who to trust.
It seems that we finally have an answer thanks to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA, for those of you who may be new to the world of Child Passenger Safety (CPS), is the federal agency responsible for setting performance standards and compliance testing carseats to ensure that they meet the standards. Well… shock of all shocks, NHTSA found nothing to support CR’s claims that the Orbit Baby infant carseat didn’t meet federal standards and was unsafe to use. You can read all about NHTSA’s conclusions and their letter to Consumer Reports on the Orbit Baby issue HERE.
If this was the first time CR had made such a blunder and caused parents unnecessary anxiety and stress then maybe I could forgive them. But this has become a disturbing trend for an organization that claims to be a consumer advocate. I’m still trying to figure out how screwing up repeatedly, refusing to disclose testing methodologies and failing to have extensive peer review done before releasing results to the public helps consumers.
Personally, I’ve had it with Consumer Reports nonsense. I will not be renewing my subscription when it expires. Instead, I’ll spend my $29 on something truly useful like a mini food processor or some new wine glasses. Of course, my canceling a single subscription isn’t going to hurt them. Certainly not in the way that they hurt product manufacturers when they unjustly rate a product as a safety risk. Will CR retract its stance and issue an apology to Orbit Baby? Probably not. Doing so would mean admitting they screwed up – again.
Orbit and CR both agree that when CR tested the car seat, they did not engage the StrongArm knob which tightens the car base down. According the instructions though, it clearly states that you need to turn the know first and then check for tightness. Thus CR defied Orbit instructions.
Regardless, if the CR failures are solely due to not engaging the StrongArm knob, then this should be reproducible and repeatable. I really wished that CR (or Orbit for that matter) had redone the test with and without the StrongArm knob turned. This would confirm what many suspect might be the cause of the CR failures. And if so, it would show that CR did not properly install the car seat and installing it properly would make the car seat totally safe.
But it would also show that Orbit might need to put even stronger wording on their instructions that the knob MUST be tightened.
Ben, if you mean to say that you couldn’t find Ms. Stockburger’s name on the list of certified techs, that’s not necessarily a problem. There’s an option to make your name and information public and many techs choose to not do so for privacy reasons. I’ve seen her at several CPS conferences; she looks like a friend of ours used to :D.
Love your title by the way, had to read it twice to make sure I was on the right site.
Try looking up Jennifer Stockburger in the national registry (click my name to go there, the URL is messy).
Consumer Reports conducted a misuse test and tried to pass it off as a test result based on correct use. That alone is enough to question their methods. Even so, misuse testing is important. If CR didn’t know enough to follow instructions or intentionally chose to ignore them, you can be sure some parents will do the same. So, is the seat going to fail if you don’t follow instructions? Who can say? CR does not have a very good reputation for child safety seat testing or information. It is certainly possible that CR or their lab made other mistakes, making their results vary from tests conducted by Orbit and the NHTSA. The other possibility, and this one is potentially much worse, is that CR is right and there is a safety flaw. That puts into question all sled crash testing as being completely unrepeatable and essentially useless for testing child safety seats. So what should a parent do? It comes down to a matter of trust. Do you trust Consumer Reports enough to follow their advice? Everyone has to make that choice for themselves. I subscribe to Consumer Reports and continue to do so. When it comes to toasters, small electronics and appliances, I find they generally do a reasonable job, though clearly have biases like any publication that conducts reviews. When it comes to autos or expensive products, I use them as only one of many sources of information and not the final authority. As for child safety seats, their questionable ratings, advice and test results in the past make this situation akin to “cyring wolf”. That’s too bad. As Kecia said, I sure hope they begin to have their results extensively peer reviewed by panels of experts, release their test results and methodology to the public and even use multiple labs for testing to make sure their results are repeatable. Our kids deserve it.
I don’t think there’s a chance of them retracting it. They reiterated their stance yesterday on their blog –
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/baby/2009/11/orbit-infant-system-passes-nhtsa-tests-but-cr-sticks-with-our-dont-buy-rating.html
My DH just GOT a subscription to Consumer Reports. He probably won’t cancel it just because I deplore them. 🙁 But good for you! (Get the food processor.)