S/O- Stories of car seats saving lives

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luckyclov

New member
I wish I had one or knew of one, personally. Sadly, I know more than one story where a child (not mine) was potentially injured greater due to misuse, which is what lit my fire w/ CPS.
 
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Defrost

Moderator - CPSTI Emeritus
In '98, I was driving with my friend. Her four children, ages 7, 5, 2, and a newborn, and my youngest (Fighter) who was four months old, were with us in my '97 Astro. Her two oldest were in lap-only belts, the 2-year-old was in a booster with a lap/shoulder belt, and the two babies were in RF infant seats. (BTW, they were all properly secured for our knowledge and the seats that were available at that time - the 2yo was already too tall for the 40-lb harnessed seat which was typical for back then, and of course the two older girls were "too big" for boosters, which couldn't be used with lap-only belts anyway. Infant seats were both baseless, properly installed, harnesses snug!)

A woman in a Volvo ran a red light and hit us on the passenger side doing 35-40mph. My van was pushed across two lanes of traffic and up onto a median (like a sidewalk, only in the middle of the road.) Everyone walked away with nothing more serious than bruises. :thumbsup:

I was also in another side-impact crash about two years before that one, though much lower speed. 3 kids in the back seat; the poor guy who'd hit us burst into tears when he ran over and saw the three "babies!" Everyone just fine in that crash, too.

Oh, and I have a tech-story about the kids I helped save, too. A co-worker asked me to help with her carseats so I set up a check with her. Her 3yo's carseat wasn't installed correctly (seat belt not locked) and the harness was loose. Her newborn's base wasn't installed at all - she'd been confused and hadn't routed the LATCH strap through the belt path. The only thing holding it in the car was the retainer strap. They were in a high-speed crash (50 mph) about six months later; car was totaled - but the kids were fine. :love:
 

oxeye

New member
I just helped a family last weekend after they were in a crash.

Their SUV hit a patch of ice on the freeway and flipped over the divider. They had 4 kids in the car - 8, 7, 18 months, and 2 weeks.

The 8 and 7 year olds were in backless boosters. The 18 month old was in a FF Dorel 3-in-1. The 2 week old was in a Snugride 22 - the seat was ejected during the roll-over and found 40 feet from the car. Amazingly all 4 children were 100% ok, no injuries at all. :eek:

I showed the dad how to install his new seats. I tried to convince him to turn the 18 month old back RF, but it was a hard sell after he was okay FF in that crash. :( So he left FF. I would wager that the seats were improperly installed in the crash as the dad needed quite a bit of guidance installing the new ones, but amazingly they did their job.
 

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