LATCH vs Seatbelt question...sensitive

ckelly626 · Feb 26, 2012

A friend of mine just posted on FB a news story about a little girl who is kind of related to her who died in a car accident yesterday. She was 4 years old and what looks to me like a graco turbo booster. The news story says she was thrown from the car IN her car seat? How does a car seat like that come out of a car? Does the seat belt fail? Does that mean it is safer to use the LATCH system if it is available (and your set has LATCH)? I ask this because my radian is installed with a seatbelt but if the seat belt has a higher failure rate than a LATCH I'll switch it to a LATCH install.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=8557996

Thoughts and prayers for the family. How sad.

tiggercat · Feb 26, 2012

I'm not sure how one could be thrown from the vehicle "in" a booster, since the booster and child are not strapped together? It is possible the child was too small or not correctly buckled in the seat, leading to the ejection of both the child and the booster seat. High back turbo or backless?

Regardless of the circumstances, these stories just break my heart

That poor family

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cookie123 · Feb 26, 2012

Wow. They had to lift the vehicle off of her! How very tragic. P & PT to the family.

Seatbelt failure is very rare, from what I've read on here. Some one probably has a link to info. It's more likely the child unbuckled or wasn't buckled securely. LATCH has weight limits - check your vehicle manual, or ask on here. Some CPSTs have a LATCH manual with the information. At some point - usually 40 or 48 lbs, you have to install with the seatbelt.

It does seem surprising that a whole car seat can be ejected.

Brianna · Feb 26, 2012

The video shows a HBTB. It's possible she wasn't buckled in correctly, she or a sibling accidentally unbuckled the seat belt, or maybe she was too small and submarined. Such a tragedy

featherhead · Feb 26, 2012

not sure what seat it was, but it's not a turbo. the armrests are wrong. it has a high back.

tiggercat · Feb 26, 2012

Brianna said:
The video shows a HBTB. It's possible she wasn't buckled in correctly, she or a sibling accidentally unbuckled the seat belt, or maybe she was too small and submarined. Such a tragedy

Thanks, it wouldn't play properly for me.
I can't see how a hbb could be fully ejected if the belt was buckled around it?

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Jeanum · Feb 26, 2012

Re: Accident question...sensitive

How horribly sad.

I won't speculate on specifics on that tragic crash at all. Seatbelt failure is statistically pretty rare overall to help reassure you, and I wouldn't necessarily switch to using LATCH over a seatbelt in most cases, especially when there are LATCH install weight limits for most harnessed carseats and most vehicles, and vehicle seatbelts are rated to hold even large adults in a crash. Even LATCHable belt positioning boosters still require use of the vehicle's lap-shoulder seatbelt to restrain the child in the belt positioning booster.

jess71903 · Feb 26, 2012

featherhead said:
not sure what seat it was, but it's not a turbo. the armrests are wrong. it has a high back.

:yeahthat:
It sounds from the article like it wasn't a parent driving her, but a church volunteer of some sort? I may be that the driver didn't know how to properly use the seat and she wasn't buckled or was buckled with the shoulder strap behind her or something. Very sad.

Brianna · Feb 26, 2012

tiggercat said:
Thanks, it wouldn't play properly for me.
I can't see how a hbb could be fully ejected if the belt was buckled around it?

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My mistake, PP is correct. It's not a Turbo but is was a high back. The vehicle rolled twice, and it's possible the door opened I guess. It's hard to imagine what actually happened.

MommyShannon · Feb 26, 2012

How sad. The video mentions they rolled over too which would add a lot of factors to it all. I'm not a tech but I think the best thing to do and learn from this is to follow their recommendations to rf as long as possible and harness until your child is mature enough and big enough for a hbb.

zactayaus · Feb 26, 2012

The seat looked like an evenflo big kids booster. So sad.

NannyMom · Feb 26, 2012

zactayaus said:
The seat looked like an evenflo big kids booster. So sad.

It's a cosco booster. Maybe the pronto? Such a sad story

it sounds like they need to cut down trees or put in a traffic light.

KristineML · Feb 26, 2012

jess71903 said:
:yeahthat:
It sounds from the article like it wasn't a parent driving her, but a church volunteer of some sort? I may be that the driver didn't know how to properly use the seat and she wasn't buckled or was buckled with the shoulder strap behind her or something. Very sad.

It was her father. A church minister.

glockchick · Feb 26, 2012

Stories like this scare the **** out of my since ex insists on putting my newly 4 year old in a booster.

Qarin · Feb 26, 2012

I really don't think there's enough information to know what happened.

It does seem likely that the pink booster in the video is hers, since the only other child in the vehicles was a boy, but you never know (it's possible that the booster was in the other vehicle, or was in the Williams family vehicle but not occupied).

Actual seatbelt failure is unlikely; more likely in a rollover is that items in the car can hit the buckle release on the seat belts during the movement, which then leaves the occupant at risk of being ejected. Another real possibility is that the child was sitting in the booster seat but it was not buckled (am I the only one who sees that in people's cars at least once a week?).

Phineasmama · Feb 26, 2012

I see parents alllllll the time, I mean like every single day, drive off while their kids are not even buckled yet. They herd their 3-4 year olds into the car, the kids are sitting on their boosters but not buckled in.

lovemybabies924 · Feb 26, 2012

im so sad already im not even gonna click the link

momtoo3 · Feb 27, 2012

This accident was only about an hour from me. There were people talking about it yesterday at the skating rink we were at. One mom was saying that that is the reason she doesn't believe in boosters. I stepped in and corrected her and also talked a little about proper booster use and why most 4 yr olds should still be harnessed. It is really sad that they lost their little girl. The booster was definitely a hb Cosco booster.

laurengt · Feb 27, 2012

What a tragedy; this makes my heart ache.

soygurl · Feb 27, 2012

It's very, very sad, and my heart goes out to the family, but I have to agree with PPs that seat belt failure is extremely rare, and it's much more likely that the little girl was not properly buckled at the time of the crash. So sad.

LATCH vs Seatbelt question...sensitive

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