Yahoo News page with Report and News videos

[Morganthe]

Most infant seats flunk crash test
By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 4, 8:05 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070105/...e/infant_seats

To be sold in the United States, an infant seat must perform adequately in a 30 mph frontal crash, and Consumer Reports found that all but the Discovery did so. But it noted that NHTSA crash tests most cars at higher speeds — 35 mph for frontal crashes and 38 mph for side crashes — so the magazine tested the seats at those speeds.

It's unconscionable that infant seats, which are designed to protect the most vulnerable children, aren't routinely tested the same as new cars," said Consumer Reports' Don Mays, a product safety director.

NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason issued a statement saying: "We are always interested in making car seats better and safer but not more complicated and difficult for parents. ... We don't want consumers misled into thinking holding a child is better than putting it into a car seat."

Nine seats failed some or all of the higher-speed tests, Consumer Reports said, while meeting the federal 30 mph standard. Another seat was judged unacceptable because it did not fit well in several cars, the magazine said.
-----

The magazine tested the type of seat that faces the rear and snaps in and out of a base. It used test dummies weighing 22 or 30 pounds, depending on the seat manufacturers' claims.

I excerpted these comments out of the article because I thought they made some interesting points.

"an infant seat must perform adequately in a 30 mph frontal crash" Is this the reporter's word or the actual requirement term? I don't know about other parents, but I want something that's more than just "Adequate" for my child, especially when manufacturers love to say their product "meets or exceeds government requirements for safety".

On the sidebar of this article, there are two video feeds related to the topic of carseats. The first is ABC's report about the findings. I got more information out of this report than the NBC broadcast last night. Several years ago, I stopped watching NBC nightly news because they had a habit of making even happy reports sound deadly with the background music and how they compiled their reports. IMO, the ABC broadcast has more information and is less sensationalized.

There were visuals of the tests and it was disturbing, especially if you remember that the area inside of a vehicle is actually cramped, so those infant seats coming off the bases would be colliding with glass and metal. The fact that 2 carseats passed creates a proven standard that can be met. Perhaps if they had tried 20 carseats of each brand, the results would have been more balanced, but I believe that car seats are one of those items that require 100% performance success. I wouldn't want my child to be that .1% failure experience

[Kellyr2]

Okay they did this odd - they cut from the crash test videos to videos of people putting kids into seats... all into FF seats! AND they were all ones that appeared to be around 12-18 months to me!

[Morganthe]

I saw that too But I think many advocates and lawmakers are just at the point of being relieved IF parents manage to get kids in safety seats properly in the first place regardless of facing direction. Think of it this way, how many adults drive without seatbelts despite laws and safety reccomendations? Human race is stupidly stubborn sometimes.

Either that or the message to rf as long as possible is just not getting out there in public and the media hasn't picked it up either. CU neglected to mention it in their section on Toddler ff seats from 20-40lbs. They did last time in their reccomendations, but not this report to make a point of rfing as long as possible. Perhaps they're just tired of shouting into the wind.