I'm not a usual poster here, but I have read on occasion and send friends with carseat questions here all the time.
Anyhow, I just wanted to drop a little note about what happened to us over the weekend and reiterate how good carseats with proper installation are so important.
I was driving my Scion xA (2004) with my 3 year old and 5 year old in the back seat. Normally I drive a Nissan Quest, but we switch around a lot and my Quest has been having issues with the heater, so I've been driving the smaller car. Anyone who is familiar with an xA will know that it's about the size of a Mini Cooper and although it rated high in crash tests, it's just so small that it's hard to imagine surviving a serious accident in it.
Anyhow, the short of it is that I was at a dead stop and was rear ended by a Yukon Denali XL traveling at a full 55-60mph.
My boys were safely buckled in their Britax Decathlon seats. Both of them are still under the limits for the LATCH, so both seats were secured with the LATCH and the back tether. We were hit very, very hard. I'm still in shock that the car performed so well, the seats performed so well and thankful that my airbags did not deploy (rear impact, shouldn't deploy) because it left me the visibility and awareness to turn the car around at practically a 90 degree angle before being hit by oncoming traffic, since the car was hit so hard that it sent us literally flying across a large median.
The boys were completely and I mean *completely* unharmed. My 5 year old complained a little about his crotch hurting from getting slammed against the center buckle. Other than that and a small bruise on his inner thigh, you would never know what we went through! They have not complained of any neck or shoulder pain which I've had a lot of. The rear of the car was packed so far forward that the Yukon came within about 4 inches of their heads. The car really amazed the fire and police crews... it held up incredibly well and crumpled in all the right places.
I should post some pics of the car when I get the downloaded. It literally has no rear end now and the rear axle is further back than the rear of the body now. Crazy!
Anyhow, I just wanted to drop a little note about what happened to us over the weekend and reiterate how good carseats with proper installation are so important.
I was driving my Scion xA (2004) with my 3 year old and 5 year old in the back seat. Normally I drive a Nissan Quest, but we switch around a lot and my Quest has been having issues with the heater, so I've been driving the smaller car. Anyone who is familiar with an xA will know that it's about the size of a Mini Cooper and although it rated high in crash tests, it's just so small that it's hard to imagine surviving a serious accident in it.
Anyhow, the short of it is that I was at a dead stop and was rear ended by a Yukon Denali XL traveling at a full 55-60mph.
My boys were safely buckled in their Britax Decathlon seats. Both of them are still under the limits for the LATCH, so both seats were secured with the LATCH and the back tether. We were hit very, very hard. I'm still in shock that the car performed so well, the seats performed so well and thankful that my airbags did not deploy (rear impact, shouldn't deploy) because it left me the visibility and awareness to turn the car around at practically a 90 degree angle before being hit by oncoming traffic, since the car was hit so hard that it sent us literally flying across a large median.
The boys were completely and I mean *completely* unharmed. My 5 year old complained a little about his crotch hurting from getting slammed against the center buckle. Other than that and a small bruise on his inner thigh, you would never know what we went through! They have not complained of any neck or shoulder pain which I've had a lot of. The rear of the car was packed so far forward that the Yukon came within about 4 inches of their heads. The car really amazed the fire and police crews... it held up incredibly well and crumpled in all the right places.
I should post some pics of the car when I get the downloaded. It literally has no rear end now and the rear axle is further back than the rear of the body now. Crazy!