News 1 YR old survived frontal on road w/speedlimit 55 mph

H

*HH*

New member
The one year old sat in a rear-facing car seat in the front passenger seat. The airbag was turned off - an active airbag can be lethal so a child should NEVER sit in front of an active airbag. In Sweden it is very common to turn off the airbag and have the child RFing in the front seat, this is not the case in the US(I have not started this thread to recommend anyone to put their child in the front seat but to show what amazing forces an RF car seat can take). The car the child was in collided with a bus! The one year old was practically unharmed. Tragically a 10 year old sister was severed injured and their parents and a 5 year old sister got killed :crying:

Edit: New article in English on carseat.se

Helena over at rear-facing.co.uk has translated the Swedish article into English, it focuses largely on the fact that the little girls life was saved because she sat RF. When one visit the Swedish link and looks at the car it is hard to understand that it was possible for two people to survive.

My thoughts and prayers goes to the family.
 
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TechnoGranola

TechnoGranola

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Thanks for the fixing the link Qarin. I found this interesting (bolding is mine)
Most small children are rear facing but by 3 years old 50% of children in Sweden are FF.
Click to expand...
Shocked me a little to see that half of kids in Sweden are FF by 3. I've always had it in my head that the earliest kids were flipped there was age 4.
 
christineka

christineka

New member
Wow! And I like that it proves rfing in the front with no air bag is not totally unsafe. (As many like to tell me that it is horribly unsafe to put any rear-facing car seat in the front even if there is no air bag.)
 
H

*HH*

New member
In Sweden they often recommend RF in the front seat with the airbag turned of, one get's a better view of the child and it gives more room for the child's leg so they can sit RFing longer. They also say that the different in the safety percentage isn't varying all that much as long as the kid is RFing, that is the most important thing. A frontal with a bus, I don't think anything could have persuaded me more about the safety in the front seat for a RFing passenger.
 
Adventuredad

Adventuredad

New member
Tragic accident, there has been massive media attention all over the country since it's so rare for a 5-year old to die in a car accident in Sweden.

Doing a write up tonight about the story on carseat.se. The little girl was sitting RF in the front seat with turned off airbag. Someone above mentioned "Wow! And I like that it proves rfing in the front with no air bag is not totally unsafe."

The front seat is just as safe as the rear seat for children as long as airbag is turned off. When we look at all the factors front seat is actually safer than rear seat which is not what most believe. A large percentage of Swedes keep their your children RF in front seat with deactivated airbag:)
 
christineka

christineka

New member
Adventuredad said:
The front seat is just as safe as the rear seat for children as long as airbag is turned off. When we look at all the factors front seat is actually safer than rear seat which is not what most believe. A large percentage of Swedes keep their your children RF in front seat with deactivated airbag:)
Click to expand...

Yes, I know. I put a rfing seat up front in dh's car because it is a much easier seatbelt to install car seats with and there is no air bag. Certain people love to tell me how horribly unsafe that is.
 
H

*HH*

New member
I was on a conferanse by the Norwegian traffic council this spring and one of Norway's best experts on car seat safety(and RF) addressed the subject of the safety in the backseat. Car manufactures have, for a long while, been consentrating on making the front of the car safest possible and they have to some extent neglected the safety of the backseat passengers.

I do believe most people, except for perhaps the Swedish people, believe that the front seat is unsafe for a child in a car seat. I would never have placed a FF child in the front seat but with the airbag turned off I would have no problems placing my RF child there.
 
scatterbunny

scatterbunny

New member
*HH* said:
I would never have placed a FF child in the front seat but with the airbag turned off I would have no problems placing my RF child there.
Click to expand...

I think this is the most important thing to emphasize: for forward-facing passengers, the front seat is less safe.

We also need to remember that most American vehicles with airbags do not have a way to easily deactivate them in order to safely put a RF child up front (the exception would be pick-up trucks).
 
H

*HH*

New member
I do think it is a bit of a myth that everyone over here has a button or a key to turn off the airbag with, here in Norway the car park isn't especially new.

There are many cars here in Norway(like my own) as well where one has to get the airbag deactiveted(or completly removed) by an authorised mechanic.
 
scatterbunny

scatterbunny

New member
In the US, virtually no mechanic will take on the liability (yes, that's what it's considered) of deactivating an airbag. One must petition NHTSA to get authorization to deactivate the airbag, and as far as I know, it's extremely difficult to be approved.

I don't know why things are so different here, but they are. It's important to note these differences, because lots of people will read this thread and simply see, "the front seat is just as safe/safer than the back seat!" and they'll just do it without looking into things further.
 
Jennifer mom to my 7

Jennifer mom to my 7

Well-known member
scatterbunny said:
I think this is the most important thing to emphasize: for forward-facing passengers, the front seat is less safe.

We also need to remember that most American vehicles with airbags do not have a way to easily deactivate them in order to safely put a RF child up front (the exception would be pick-up trucks).
Click to expand...

My conversion van has a key switch (as in you need to put the key in the spot and turn the airbag on or off):thumbsup:

Anyway, anyone know how we could put the translation and the origional article together somehow?
 

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