I have a few questions which may or may not be able to be answered here...
I've looked at only a few of the videos; for vehicles which are similar to ours (they didn't test with anything really close to the '94 Grand Am we'll be installing in) and for seats which are either what we have (Evenflo Embrace) or similar to what we're intending to get for later (Radian XT).
1. I understand that the rebound part of a crash is unlikely to cause severe injuries because of contact with a head rest and/or back of the seat back (soft surfaces). But there are some car seats that already have a RF tether - might be a dumb question but is there a list of these seats, and/or an explanation on how they work? After seeing the Embrace contact the back of the seat in a few of the vehicles (the one in the Honda Pilot was really scary, but I think that was more to do with the seat back moving due to a passenger behind it), I'm thinking that this could be a concern for us. We already have this seat so buying something else isn't really an option, but just looking for more info on the RF tethers.
2. I'm looking at these crashes and I don't see any (I didn't look at all of them) where the seat was installed in the middle position. Again on the rebound issue, could there be more of a concern if a RF seat is installed in the middle seat? Particularly in a vehicle like ours which doesn't have a head rest on the middle seat in the back? Though I know that the middle is the safest spot mostly because of side impact crashes, are frontal (either head-on or off-set) crashes more common and therefore the potential for a rebound injury potentially greater if the seat is positioned in the middle of a vehicle with no head rest? (For those who aren't familiar with this car, though this image is of a 2-door version - ours is 4 - you can see what might happen if a rebound popped the car-seat into the area of the head-rest in the middle seat:
http://tinyurl.com/yj5en37) I'm sure I'm freaking out for (almost) nothing, but I would be very very upset if something as simple as putting the seat on one side or the other could potentially save a head injury due to a rebound - because from what I could tell when the Embrace contacted the seat back, it was the face of the dummy that hit the head rest - in our car in the middle that would be a padded area only the width of the seat and the potential to have the face contact the rigid shelf behind the seat.
3. I know they didn't test higher-weight RF seats, since they used an average 12 month old child dummy (anyone know what the actual weight of this dummy is?). So I'm wondering if they do any testing (even bench tests) on the higher weight RF seats, like for example a 30 lb dummy in the TF or MA or RN? Regardless, would these scenarios be more likely to result in a rebound injury? Even without the confusion about the seating angle, would a heavier child have more or less rebound? Should I be concerned about the potential for a rebound injury if we get the new Radian XT and use it as close to that 45 lb RF limit? (I'm aware of the fact that the regulations may change before we even buy this seat or before we get anywhere near the limits of it.) Or is there other things, like someone mentioned the potential for leg injuries in a larger child, which we should be aware of with a larger, higher weight child RF?
4. Finally, I don't expect that TC can realistically test every seat in every vehicle from even the last couple of years, but if they identify specific situations which are dangerous, and change the regulations, what will happen then? Like if they decide that certain RF seats should have a RF tether, will the manufacturers have to recall their seats and possibly replace them to have those regulations met? Or will they basically make an exception for seats that have been purchased before the regulations came into affect (or manufactured before that date)? What would happen if they identified that a certain seat in a certain vehicle needed something different, like a different tether or perhaps a seat-belt install instead of the LUAS? Would it be the car-seat manufacturer that had to change something or the vehicle manufacturer?
Sorry this is so long. I doubt that all of these can even be answered now or perhaps even by anyone here... but even opinions might help!
Thanks in advance,
Melissa