As you may know, the Chicago Tribune recently revealed data from some testing done by the government on infant car seats. This wasn’t the usual sled testing used to pass child restraint models for sale to consumers. It was a new type of testing done for research in conjunction with the NCAP testing of new vehicles by the NHTSA, something not required for child seats. Are the flaws a major concern? Is this important for the safety of your baby? Is it another Consumer Reports type of blunder with improper test methods, leading to hysteria among parents? Perhaps somewhere in between?
I’m out of town on a short trip, but Heather and Kecia are working round-the-clock to sort through all the fine details! Stay tuned this week for the 411 on what you really need to know about crash tests and infant carrier and base child seat models from Graco, Combi and others. In the mean time, federal officials interested in a long-overdue update of their standards might read our blog from last year on the subject of inadequate testing:
https://carseatblog.com/?p=121
The seats that flew off the base…. scary.
That rebound…. also scary.
I will be looking foward to updates and replies from everyone involved.
Those videos are scary to watch. Very disturbing. Maybe there will be some changes to testing.
I can’t wait to see what comes of this. The footage was pretty scary, though. Is it just me, or did the dummy look too big for the seat?
Regardless, I’m glad I moved my youngest out of her KF at 7 months and into a rfing tethered RA. After seeing the rebound, I am pretty convinced that dd will stay in a seat that tethers rfing or has a rebound bar.