Question regarding accidents

[Vanessa23]

We have just installed our new Britax Marathon and some idiot rear ended us, then drove away. There's no damage to the car, or any of us as far as I can tell. My question - does the car seat (or seats in this case since we had his bucket installed still) need to be replaced. The store near us is already sold out of the 65 lb. seat and I'm hoping that we can continue using the one that we have but I want to know ASAP so that I can try to get one from an online source.

Thanks,
Vanessa

[tawnylee]

Here's what I found on here:
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=9575

[pippi2077]

I would call Britax on Monday and talk to them. Their rules are a little different then other manufactures.

Stefanie

[southpawboston]

how fast were you moving? how fast was he moving? how hard was the impact? did it feel like a "bump" that may happen when parallel parking? or was it a bigger impact which caused an actual jolt to your bodies? if you go by NHTSA's and britax's guidelines (which are based on NHTSA's), and there was no damage to the car, then it should be fine.

[Vanessa23]

We were stopped and the impact was not hard - I didn't think that it would impact the car seats but it kind of freaks me out that it could. More than anything I'm irritated that the guy just drove off - there wasn't any visible damage so I don't get what the big deal was for him to give up his insurance information.

[babychild taxi]

Hi,

Here in Canada, Transport Canada states that all car seats should be replaced if in an accident (regardless if a child was in the seat or not). I had to bring this to my adjuster's attention after she said, "oh, we don't do that, go to the fire hall to have the seats checked".

HTH

K.

[Vanessa23]

Do you have a reference for this? I scanned TC's website and I couldn't find anything.

[snowbird25ca]

Do you have a reference for this? I scanned TC's website and I couldn't find anything.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/tp/tp13511/tips.htm

Scroll down to used car seats and there's info in a the green box about not buying or reusing a restraint that's been in a collision.

Was there any paint transfer or scratch to either vehicle? If it's so minor that there wasn't even paint transferred, I definitely wouldn't replace the britax seat. Britax has an official recommendation about replacing seats involved in a crash, and minor crashes they don't require a seat be replaced. Infant carrier manufacturers on the other hand, do say to replace after any collision.

My 2 cents - and note that this is a personal story and not a professional recommendation per se: We had a car bump our car when it was pulling out of a parking spot next to us when dd was a baby and in her infant carrier. It scratched the paint on our car, but that's pretty much it. We never replaced dd's seat even though our car cost around $600 for the other person's insurance to fix. There weren't any crash forces to speak of - not like if you were in a collision anyways - a parking lot bump when one vehicle is stopped and another grazes it is probably much more common than most realize... we likely wouldn't have noticed the scratch if dh hadn't been in the car when it happened. Although we had a claim and it was considered a collision because the other vehicle was in motion, it's not something that I felt the need to replace the car seat at the time.

I wasn't a tech back then... but my thinking was that it wasn't really a collision. And while now I'd probably replace the seat just to get a newer one if the other guys insurance was paying for it, I probably still wouldn't replace it if I was at fault and would be paying for it out of my pocket... in my case anyways, it still falls into the category of parking lot ding and not a crash.

So anyways, based on your description, it depends on your comfort level, but it definitely falls into britax's guidelines about minor crash & according to those it's safe to continue using the seat. As for the infant seat, the manufacturer will tell you to replace it, and since you weren't at fault, you might as well replace it. You could make the parental decision to continue using it as I'm guessing lots of folks have hit the curb harder than you were hit from the sounds of it... but since it's not money out of your pocket, you might as well replace it and be done with it.