So many parents think that car seat expiry dates are nothing more than a ploy by manufacturers to get them to buy seats more often... or else they don't think using an old seat could be that dangerous.

Here's a video of an old seat being crash tested - see how the harness rips right out of the shell?

http://home.comcast.net/~dcbsr/test/..._old_seat.mpeg

When I see kids in old seats and their parents...

Tonight I've had a reminder that no matter how hard you try, some people will always return to doing things the old way.

In the interest of anonymity, I won't go into too many details, but I was disappointed tonight to see a family that I'd helped get a safe seat in the car headed to return the seat and had the 14+ yr old unsafe seat back in the car for their little one. The new seat had been "uncomfortable" and his head had slouched forward when he slept.
...