Hey! I'm Laura, and I'm hoping I can get some help here. About a year ago, we were driving about 45mph and hit a deer. Actually it was more like the deer bounced off the van. We never even thought to replace the car seats because we, honestly, didn't think it was a large enough impact. The airbags did not deploy and the van was driveable. Both of our kids (Lucas and Laylah, 3 and 4 at the time of the accident, 4 and 5 now) are both in Graco Nautilus 3 in 1. I took the manual out because Lucas is now 65 lbs and needs to be in the booster, and I saw that the manual says to replace the seats after ANY accident. I called Graco, and was kind of told "yes it counts as an accident, but to go to NHTSA to check their checklist about replacing. I'm so torn. I don't know if I should replace them or not. Please help!
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Question Do I need to replace the car seats?! Help!
- Thread starter mamato2ls
- Start date
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I don't remember if the seat belts locked or not. My husband says they didn't, and if they did I wouldn't have been able to use the belt afterwards. I don't remember them locking. The air bags did not deploy, no one was hurt, and it was driveable. I had control of the van, and the deer basically bounced of the front/side of the driver side.
The NHTSA criteria are for a minor crash. Britax and a couple of other seats follow those. Graco says replace after any, not the NHTSA criteria.
Did you file an insurance claim? Did the deer live?
I'd replace, though. A carseat crash test that you see on youtube, the official ones, are done at 30 mph because that's considered a serious crash. More serious than most crashes that carseat will be put through in real life. You hit something at 45 mph. Well above that. Sounds like the carseats worked perfectly. Will they work again? They're single crash items.
And your belts would unlock after the crash. You can get them to lock by pulling on them roughly, then they'll unlock.
Wendy
Did you file an insurance claim? Did the deer live?
I'd replace, though. A carseat crash test that you see on youtube, the official ones, are done at 30 mph because that's considered a serious crash. More serious than most crashes that carseat will be put through in real life. You hit something at 45 mph. Well above that. Sounds like the carseats worked perfectly. Will they work again? They're single crash items.
And your belts would unlock after the crash. You can get them to lock by pulling on them roughly, then they'll unlock.
Wendy
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