Lawsuit over chest clips -- convenience vs. safety feature

Keeanh · Sep 18, 2011

I stumbled upon this lawsuit: http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/15319.htm
It was filed by a father on behalf of his daughter who was severely injured in a crash due to her arms being out of the harness. He claims it was Century's fault because she must have undone the paperclip-style chest clip and removed her arms before impact. Graco/Century said the chest clip was just a convenience, and not the necessary safety feature the father claimed it was. They settled out of court.

tiggercat · Sep 18, 2011

What I find interesting there is the photo they chose, showing a child incorrectly strapped into a seat without a chest clip. It seems there would be no way to prove whether the child had been strapped in correctly prior to the collision, or if she had undone the clip and slipped the straps off herself...

Judi · Sep 18, 2011

I think the father on behalf of the daughter, should have sued himself. He needs to keep an eye on the child. Yes, I do understand the it could have happened right before. If that it the case, there is nothing that could have been done.

lovemybabies924 · Sep 18, 2011

Poor kiddo though

Sent from my iPod touch, sorry for any auto-correct typos!

Starlight · Sep 18, 2011

The chest clip is only a pre-crash positioner. It can't do anything unless the harness is properly tightened around the child.

They don't use chest clips in many foreign countries. With the straps properly snug around my son, we never had any problems with his arms coming out of the harness in our foreign seat. :twocents:

Keeanh · Sep 18, 2011

Starlight said:
The chest clip is only a pre-crash positioner. It can't do anything unless the harness is properly tightened around the child.

They don't use chest clips in many foreign countries. With the straps properly snug around my son, we never had any problems with his arms coming out of the harness in our foreign seat. :twocents:

Yep. You know that, and I know that, and Graco knows that. But obviously they didn't feel this was a battle worth fighting in the courts. I had a houdini child who managed to get out of a 3-pt harness as an infant. As an older toddler, she undid the paperclip thingy on her harness, but never took her arms out. I don't know if she couldn't, because it was too tight, or if I just always caught her before she tried.

Kat_Momof3 · Sep 18, 2011

I feel bad for him and his daughter, but if the straps were snug enough, her arms wouldn't have come free without her doing it intentionally... and intentional doing that is a discipline issue.

not that I'm saying that carseat manufacturers shouldn't do their best to help us prevent those behaviors... just saying... not something I'd sue over.

Lawsuit over chest clips -- convenience vs. safety feature

Keeanh

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tiggercat

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Judi

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lovemybabies924

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Starlight

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Kat_Momof3

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