Car seats and insurance

S

Sarah

Guest
Car seats and insurance

Hi, our family is about to relocate to Washington DC from Australia. We have two toddlers in car seats and we are trying to find out if we can use their Australian carseats in America. We have been told that there may be an insurance problem if we use a car seat that does not have an US Federal Standards label attached to it. Someone has told us that if we use our Australian car seats, that for all purposes meet the US standards but just not officially, our children will not be covered by the insurance company should we be in an accident and they are hurt. Can anybody shed some light on this for us or let us know where we might get an answer?
Thanks
 
ADS
C

Caviller

Guest
You will probably want new seats...

Unfortunately, it is also probably illegal to use carseats which do not have the sticker certifying them to US standards. It is not likely you would be caught or ticketed for this, but an insurance company will very likely use that if there ever was a claims issue. Of course, this may vary by state and insurance company.

As for safety, your seats should be fine to use for the time it takes to acquire new ones but you will probably want to do so as quickly as possible.

If you are looking for new seats and would like some input, please post the ages and weights of your toddlers, and perhaps the make and model of your vehicle if you know that already.

Good luck!

Darren
 
J

Julie

Guest
I agree, new seats are a good idea.....

I lived in Australia several years ago, and I had ocassion to remove and reinstall a carseat for my young cousin, and the top tether strap was completely different from the tether straps we use in the US. Now, that may have changed (it was in 1988, in a 1975 Volvo), but it illustrates the point that there may be other differences, and thus the reason for different regulations and stickers.
 

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