No car seat or expired car seat?

Which is worse, and why? In one of our FB yard sale groups they are asking for donations to a shelter and are asking people to donate expired seats. I don't know how I feel about this but everyone keep saying "expired seats are better than no seats". I feel like it gives the family a false sense of safety and they will not try to get a seat that is actually safe. What do you think? Are there actual studies on this I can see?

I'm not sure I understand. They are specifically requesting expired seats, or they are just asking for seats in any condition?

The fallacy here is that those are the only two choices. They aren't.

If my car caught fire in the desert and was a total loss, car seat and all, and my child and I were stranded on the side of the road, hitchhiking, and we were going to DIE if we didn't accept a ride from the first person who stopped to help, who had an expired car seat in the vehicle, yes, I would probably put my child in the expired car seat rather than hold the child on my lap. But how often does that really come up in real life?

I would use an expired seat rather than none, but I agree, that my concern is that if the family is given an expired seat, they will not work towards getting a new one. Is there a safe kids' organization that gives out car seats for free or low cost?

Wow! I am thinking that is a terrible idea. The shelter is just opening themselves up for a potential lawsuit if they are giving anyone expired carseats to use! The request should be rephrased to request any currently unused seats which have never been in any accidents. I would think the request should specifically prohibit the donation of any expired seats!

And honestly, the better request would be for donation of giftcards or money which can be used to purchase new carseats to appropriately fit the child and the car in which it will be used.

If I am reading this correctly, the shelter has not requested expired carseats, but this FB group is encouraging people to donate any carseats even if they are expired. More than likely, a shelter will not appreciate that at all! Then they will have to check all the expiration dates and trash the ones that are unusable. It is the same rule as for clothing. You just do not donate your trash. If it belongs with the trash, then discard it.

Also, unless the shelter has a lot of kids needing carseats immediately, then they will have to discard or donate some of them elsewhere. The shelter probably does not have space to store a lot of carseats. They have space to store food, diapers, food and formula, probably some clothing and blankets, but not much else. I have worked for a women's domestic violence shelter before and we definitely did not have the extra space to store a lot of carseats. But, we did allocate money to purchase carseats as needed.

It was always extremely obnoxious when people would drop off clothing donations that even Goodwill would have trashed. Rule is if you could not sell at a consignment sale, do not donate it!

I bet there is a seat program in the area. Set them up with that. That is what we have done here. When seats are donated, they are given to me.

I'd also check to see what the laws are in your area in regards to used/expired seats. In my area laws prevent the resale of carseats through consignment and thrift stores. If your area has those laws maybe you could point them out and say, "if the law prohibits the resale it must be for a reason, maybe we shouldn't be giving away the expired seats. We should look at the legal issues involved if a seat fails."

It is really a catch 22. If the parents are not given a seat, will they make attempts to get a seat for their child. But as was pointed out, if you give them an expired seat they aren't going to try to get a seat that is not expired. If there are no programs with free/low cost seats locally I think the idea of a fund to help buy those in need appropriate seats is a good idea. Maybe talk to some local retailers about getting a discount.

If the seat is degraded enough, an expired car seat could possibly be worse than using just a seat belt... if the harness rips out of the back of the car seat, the child might be more likely to be ejected than if they are in an ill-fitting seat belt. Both are bad options, and it's not necessarily possible to determine which is the least dangerous of the options. In a proper use state, either option is equally illegal.