Front seat isofix is just starting to emerge in Europe. Perhaps our vechile fleet is younger than in the USA, but there are still a massive amount of old cars on the roads here.
I have never been to Sweden, but I have been to various other European urban areas and in general, there is no where even close to the prevalence of vehicles older than 15 years, pickups and truck based SUVs or very large 18+ wheel semi-trailer delivery trucks. Perhaps the Nordic regions vary, but at least where I've been in continental western Europe, England, Ireland, Greece and Israel, it has been fairly consistent.
The chassis on new cars has been made a lot stiffer over the years in order to better protect the adults there. Stiffer chassis can result in greater loads on children regardless of where they are seated in the car. the backs of RF seats will absorb the majority of those loads.
My point had more to do with the prevalence of ladder-frame truck based vehicles in the USA. Unibody designs on cars, car-based SUVs and minivans have stiffened to meet offset impact crash tests, but are still not nearly as rigid as truck-based vehicles in general.
Anyway, I think that the risk of FF children being placed too closely to the dashboard is another issue with FF in front seats (mind you that if you allow RF seats on the front seat, you´ll allow FF seats too there). I see that ALL too often (everyday). Ideally these children (usually in boosters) should be placed as far back as possible. But they are not.
SO there are issues related to placing children FF in the front seat. But this is largely misuse.
By the way Darren, we imported the Britax Regent some years ago, when our Autistic DD grew out of her FF 20-40 lbs restraint (FF). She would not sit properly in a booster, and it was impossible to explain it to her back then. Then Mathias came into the world, and the search for an ERF seat started. We found out that we could have had DD in a 5 point harness legally, on our visit to Sweden to get Mathias and ERF seat (Multitech)
. DD is 6 years old now and rides safely in her highback booster most of the time. Ofcause there are some "short bad times", but they come further and further apart. Today they are rare.
Lena
Certainly, there are many cases where it is acceptable to put kids in the front seat. In the case of a rear-facing infant seat, it can be quite safe if the frontal airbag is disabled. I think the point being made is that based on research and statistics in the USA, we recommend that it be the last option as it is considered to be safer for kids 12 and under to be in back. Obviously, we'd all be happy if we had many of the exact same vehicles and child seats certified for sale here as are available in Sweden and elsewhere.
it´s late, so my ability to think is impaired HA, HA. It just crossed my mind that, another reason for placing RF children on the front seat is less risk of being distracted by a constantly crying baby in the back.
That is quite possible, but one could also contend that it is *more* distracting to have the baby within clear sight and easy reach, causing the driver to pay less attention to the road. Or perhaps it is close to a wash and that's why the statistics here are what they are.
Yet another point, that FF in the rear seat has been found to be LESS safe than RF in the front seat in Europe.
The front seat allows RF for longer time as it increases legroom for the child and there by comfort
I definitely agree with this, if there is no issue with an active airbag, of course. The studies in the USA are strictly based on front vs. rear seat in general.
For specific situations, studies don't ever really offer much value. For example, I suspect the advantages of rear facing are significantly diminished when you assume that the child is in a correctly installed and used front-facing seat in a newer vehicle with modern safety features. Most statistics only consider averages, including much older vehicles and restraints and kids who are improperly restrained. Rear facing seats tend to have some advantages in regard to tolerance of misuse that certainly helps for the typical parent, but perhaps not as much for a typical forum reader;-)
Also with regard to the larger RF seats, the dashboard is stronger than the front seat back, so will hold the RF seat better in a frontal collision. æ
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As I said, a rear facing seat mitigates most of the issues with intrusion and striking a hard portion of the interior. Even so, in a very severe impact, the front seat occupant space is much more likely to be compromised than the rear seat. A violent strike agaist the dash is probably just the first hazard, whereas a strike against a softer vehicle seat back may be the only hazard for a child seat in back.
This is great discussion, by the way, especially given the lack of relevant data to make direct comparison from country to country. Plenty of kids ride safely in the front seat of cars in the USA every day. It's just that all the available data and research we have here shows that they would be even safer in back.