Infant safety in convertible

mpellas · Feb 27, 2007

Hello,

I just bought a convertible car and wanted to know how safe my 22 month old daughter would be in a car seaat in the back seat if the car were to roll.

The car is a BMW M3 and the car seat is a Cosco something-or-other.

I checked around but couldn't find any good sites talking about this topic. any once know of any good sites that has statistics on crashes and/or recomendations on how to make it safe for her?

Thanks!
Mark.

Judi · Feb 27, 2007

What year is the car?

AdventureMom · Feb 27, 2007

Hmmm.... Good question. Technically, all seats are just as safe as the others. They're required to meet the same requirements, etc. The key is having it correctly installed and also having the straps tight enough to properly secure the child. That matters more than which seat it is. It really does make the difference in a crash. Get your seat checked by a CPS tech at a carseat check event or go to the local fire department and see if they can check it for you.

Now on to my personal opinion: I would make sure that you can get a seat that is so snug it won't budge at all. Then I'd make sure that your DD's head is well below the top of the back of the child seat (a forward-facing seat can still be used even when the child's head sticks up over the top of the shell as long as they fit in the harness correctly).

We have a soft top Jeep Wrangler and a Britax Marathon. Very tight, snug install. Nice, high back on the shell, etc. Not sure if any of this matters, but it makes us feel like our son is safer...

BABYGIRLLYNDSEY · Feb 28, 2007

We have a soft top Jeep Wrangler and a Britax Marathon. Very tight, snug install. Nice, high back on the shell, etc. Not sure if any of this matters, but it makes us feel like our son is safer...

[/QUOTE]

We also have a Jeep Wrangler with daughter in a Boulevard. Although I don't like it when hubby drives with the top off I do feel safer with the roll bar system in the Jeep.

I'm not sure in a convertible though. Would the owners manual or the dealership be able to help? The state police in our town have a CPS Tech. I'd ask them. They checked our car seat in the Jeep and did not say anything about it just that he had seen my husband buzzing around town with the kids in it (top off) over the summer .

SafeDad · Feb 28, 2007

mpellas said:
Hello,

I just bought a convertible car and wanted to know how safe my 22 month old daughter would be in a car seaat in the back seat if the car were to roll.

The car is a BMW M3 and the car seat is a Cosco something-or-other.

I checked around but couldn't find any good sites talking about this topic. any once know of any good sites that has statistics on crashes and/or recomendations on how to make it safe for her?

Thanks!
Mark.

For rollover protection, you are mostly at the mercy of the design of the vehicle. Some convertibles now have "pop up" roll bars that improve protection. Features like stability control can help avoid rollovers in the first place. I haven't really looked at convertibles lately, but I suspect that side curtain airbags may be lacking on some models, so that would be a concern.

As long as your daughter is properly restrained in a correctly installed 5-point harness child restraint in the back seat, she should be relatively safe. Unfortunately, I don't know of any statistics this specific that would help you.

mpellas · Feb 28, 2007

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses. The car is a 2006 model.

southpawboston · Feb 28, 2007

i can't speak for the BMW, but i know that the saab 900 convertible was recently crash tested in the euroNCAP and got fantastic ratings, both for offset frontal and for side protection (and child protection). saabs and BMWs both typically do very well. however this does not address rollover protection, just non-rollover collisions.

Judi · Mar 1, 2007

With the belt being so far out from the bight, you will have to use latch!

Infant safety in convertible

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