Have you emailed about rfing limits yet?

[christineka]

We were all given the charge to help do something about the rear-facing limits. Anyone done anything yet?

I just emailed the "Big 3" car seat manufacturers. Not sure who else to write to. I thought they might not dismiss me as a weirdo if others emailed too.

[mamabear]

Planning on it.
DH has been out of town , not much time to formulate an articulate letter..I'm doing it when he gets home:thumbsup:

[snowbird25ca]

I actually did this awhile ago - end of May or else June 2007. I emailed Transport Canada with a bunch of questions and comments back then. :thumbsup:

The laws in Canada allow for carseat manufacturers to certify their seats up to 48lbs rf'ing right now - but nobody has ever done it. It's ultimately up to the manufacturers to make & certify seats to higher rf'ing weights, so maybe with enough people pestering them more manufacturers will give it serious thought.

If I was to pick one manufacturer as the most likely to figure out a way to test to higher weights, I'd probably go with SK and the Radian - with it's steel frame I think it's most likely to pass with a higher weight dummy without any major modifications to it - though perhaps a 2nd rf'ing boot would be needed to reduce the recline?

I imagine if Britax put a rebound bar on it's convertibles, and then required australian style tethering they'd also be able to pass rf'ing at higher weights without having a foot prop - which from what I've gathered is one of the big problems as it's not allowed in the US (not sure about Canada...) And then that (rebound bar, australian tethering,) would need to be combined with having a dummy that would fit appropriately in the seat in order for testing. I guess that is where the government would be able to help - having another AMD added would probably be necessary...

eta: Now that I think about it, I've corresponded with Evenflo about the rf'ing weight limit on the EFTA in Canada. Though unfortunately I didn't get anywhere, they said they'd look into it and discuss it with TC. Who knows if they have or not though, that kind of thing tends to move at a snails pace. *shrug*

[Maedze]

That's a really good idea!

Soooo

We need to write to

Graco
Evenflo
Britax
Sunshine Kids
The First Years
Combi
Recaro
Dorel

http://directory.usayfoundation.org/ That's a list of representatives :)

[christineka]

I just emailed Sunshine Kids. I can't find an email or "contact us" for Recaro or Britax. Anyone have it?

[Andie]

I chose other.
I have been corresponding with NHSTA the past couple days. They say that they do recommend ERF, but I've only seen one flyer that it says that. I have it saved to my computer, I'm at my mom's but, I can post it in a bit. I plan on emailing lawmakers and car seat companies very soon.

Scatterbunny and I also have written a letter to our local paper about car seat safety and they will be running it next week.

[fyrfightermomma]

I wrote to both Graco and Britax. I picked them because they already have higher weight rear facing seats out in different countries. The technology is there. They just need to bring it to us!

[NannyMom]

I just tried to email Graco and it wouldn't go through. So I called, and the rep said they don't have any seats coming out beyond 30 pounds (umm...not even a SR 32?). She said I could email her (and she gave me her direct email) and she could forward it on.

[barnmama25]

Am I missing something? Was there a post urging us to email them?

[TechnoGranola]

Not sure if this counts as it was before grandpa's post and it doesn't deal with weight, but I spoke to Sunshine Kids and Britax about removing the 32" RF height limit on Canadian seats and told them that were most definitely misinterpreting CMVSS 213 (as SK told me they were "following Canadian standards". SK told me they would look into it (and a couple weeks after in a SK chat, I believe SK mentioned to more people that they were going to look into it). Britax never responded.

[Andie]

In Luv2befishin's thread about his grandson, he gave permission to tell the story. The only thing he wants in return is for us to write these people about the issue. Post #21.


Am I missing something? Was there a post urging us to email them?

[papooses]

I've also already written everyone possible when I joined the forum, before I became a CPST. I will be writing again during either fall break or my holiday break.