Booster seats/unsecured

I gather from reading forums that booster seats are not secured via LATCH or tether because they are light enough not to contribute to impact injury in the event of a crash.
Those heavier seats like the Bodyguard and Recaro have lock offs or tethers because the are heavy. Will manufacturers ever make boosters that secure via latch or tether? I am planning a Parkway purchase for carpool days when I am not there to install her 5 point car seat.

Also, with a Parkway, it seems like you can leave the seatbelt in locked or unlocked positions (in the forums) Is there a difference in injury potential for these options?
I have a 4 1/2 year old in a 5 point harness that goes to 65 lbs, with SIP (Britax). I will probably move here to a Husky when I need her seat for my 2 year old. Or is the injury potential from the weight of the HUSKY more than the benefit of a 5 point harness? I suppose that as long as the seat belt holds the Husky in place, I am worrying unecessarily.
Once upon a time I worked with head trauma patients, and they haunt me. . . want my little ones to be as safe as they can be for factors within my control. Thank you!

As far as I know, there is no risk of injury from the weight of the Husky ... when the directions are followed - it requires top tether use after 50 pounds (don't know why not before then). The crash test comparisons of harness vs. booster convinced me it's definitely safer than a booster, but once kiddo is mature enough to sit still properly for the entire length of every trip (& fits the weight/height limits) then a booster is good ... even necessary once all harness seats are outgrown & kiddo doesn't pass the 5 Step Test My kiddo uses the Wizard/Boulevard as her primary seats, Husky will soon be her primary seat once we hand down the convertibles to the new baby in the family (not mine) - she does use a Parkway as her spare seat in my parents' vehicles. I made sure she learned to lock the shoulder strap in herself (in case my parents forget) because, to me, the risk of any possibly yet unlikely chest injury is less severe than her being ejected from the seat because she forgot to sit still properly - locking the belt acts as a reminder for her to stay in the proper position

Right, since the Husky is installed, there's no weight-loading on the child from it as there could be in a booster seat. It does very well in NHTSA compliance testing, too. They can't require a top tether, per NHTSA standards till NHTSA's out of the fray (NHTSA only regulates child safety products up to 50 pounds...ever notice those seatbelt adjusters START at 50 pounds? That's because they don't have to pass any testing below that weight)...the Husky performs just fine without a top tether (as do all seats...NONE are required to have a top tether to meet the less-stringent requirements...they all DO need a top tether to meet the more-stringent requirements, though...there are two tests so we know how seats perform when optimally installed, and also to make sure kids in cars with no top tethers are safe, too).

Sorry, I'm rambling!

There's a new seat by the Spanish Company Jane', called the Indy Plus, that has rigid LATCH attachments and is tested for side impact protection... I sure hope we get that seat here, as reviews I've read from other countries are very good (parents love them, that is...safer? I sure hope they are!).

Anyway, the seats that are tested for side impact protection really DO keep heads contained quite well... Crash tests I've seen for the Bodyguard (and the Parkway is improved from that!) are phenomenal...a forward-moving dummy is striken from the side, just like a real crash, and the head stays IN the headwings. Other seats, in crash tests where the dummy is static and then slammed from the side, allow the heads out of the side wings to strike the window or door of the car. Ouch and worse than ouch (side impacts are quite deadly, which is why side curtain airbags are going from novelty to law so quickly...).

Locking or not locking the seatbelt is fine. I've heard a rumour that seatbelts would be safer if ALL of them (not just the front seats) had pretensioners, which work faster than the normal inertia reel mechanism we have, and that it *might* be advantageous to lock the belts to prevent too much forward head motion... but this is in the VERY early stages of data collection... So for now I wouldn't worry, but I'm keeping my eyes open for more details on that...

maryg3542 said:

Or is the injury potential from the weight of the HUSKY more than the benefit of a 5 point harness?

Click to expand...

There is no extra force on the kiddo resulting from the Husky, because the kid is "attached" with the carseat through the integrated harness, and not the vehicle seat (like with a booster).

Joy