thekatie
New member
That's probably a lousy subject title, but I wasn't sure what to call this. I'm asking for a mom on another forum, she had a question about where to place her son who just reached the height limit for rear facing in his convertible and now has to be forward facing.
She says that her vehicle manual does not specify that a seat cannot be installed in the middle position (I don't know what vehicle she has), but now that her son is forward facing, she feels uncomfortable having him in the middle with nothing between him and the windshield. She asked if there is (direct quote) "any research on side crashes versus front end collisions and objects coming through the windshield?"
My gut feeling was that I've read many instances of other vehicles pushing into the car in side impact crashes and if I only had one child I would prefer him in the middle, and that I've not read many instances of objects coming through the windshield and hurting a child in the back seat (actually, not any that I can think of, though I'm sure it can happen). But that's an untrained lay person's gut instincts, and now something I'm wondering about.
She says that her vehicle manual does not specify that a seat cannot be installed in the middle position (I don't know what vehicle she has), but now that her son is forward facing, she feels uncomfortable having him in the middle with nothing between him and the windshield. She asked if there is (direct quote) "any research on side crashes versus front end collisions and objects coming through the windshield?"
My gut feeling was that I've read many instances of other vehicles pushing into the car in side impact crashes and if I only had one child I would prefer him in the middle, and that I've not read many instances of objects coming through the windshield and hurting a child in the back seat (actually, not any that I can think of, though I'm sure it can happen). But that's an untrained lay person's gut instincts, and now something I'm wondering about.