The BEST side impact protection!

Hello. You guys have been so awesome in helping me choose the best car seats for my kids. I bought a Diono Monterey for my 10 year old daughter based on my last questions and posts. She loves it! It was perfect in my 2013 Subaru Outback. Thank you tiggercat and kidrepair. I am now replacing my 5 year old son's Graco Nautilus. He has had it for over 3 years and it has no head support.

The reason why I was in search of a new booster in the first place, was because I was rear-ended on a highway during rush hour going around 30MPH, and pushed into the car in front of me, in my 2003 Toyota Matrix. Thank god, the kids were not with me, in their Radian XTSL and Britax Frontier 85 car seats. Even though I drove away from the scene, I initially did not feel injured, the doors of the car were not damaged, and the car seats did not appear damaged, I feel like I still need to replace the car seats. I later felt the neck whiplash and was told that my necks hurts because of the double whiplash I sustained from getting hit in the back and then in the front. The car did sustain some hood and bumper damage, had too many miles, and was totaled because of that. So we bought the 2013 Subaru Outback.

But I have recently seen some really bad accidents involving T-boning in major intersections.

So now my question is: What is the best car seat protection for SIDE IMPACT PROTECTION in general according to the research. Especially for a small 2010 Honda Civic?

The Monterey is great but I know that it isn't reinforced with steel like the Radian XTSL. I have always loved my son's Radian XTSL. I always felt safe with it, but overall it was getting too narrow for him anyway. His shoulders were starting to round because of it. I am really thinking about the Britax Frontier 85 SICT but does it really do what it is suppose to do? With an accident going over 40MPH? Most accidents don't take place at 20 or 30MPH?

5 1/2 year old son:
Height:46"
Weight: 50lbs (pure skinny), LOL despite being a size 6 in tops and size 7 in bottoms, in clothes.
Seated shoulder height: ~13.5-14"

9 1/2 year old daughter:
Height: 55.5"
Weight: 84lbs (pure muscle) she is a size 10 in clothes.
Width ~13-13.5" from shoulder to shoulder
Seated shoulder height is 19 1/4"

Cars: 2013 Subaru Outback and 2010 Honda Civic Sedan 4 door.

Please share your knowledge. I know that Europe has different safety standards, etc., etc. Any comments or links to articles would be appreciated. Please let me know if I am in the wrong forum. Thanks in advance.

:

Hi there. I'm sorry about your accident, but glad you weren't seriously hurt!

Unfortunately, there IS no data on how seats perform in side impacts. Hopefully that will change sometime soon ("soon" being a relative word when it comes to government standards), but for now, pretty much all we have is marketing from the car seat companies.

I have no idea whether the Frontier SICT does what it claims, but I imagine it does help. To what extent, I have no idea. I plan on getting one for my daughter eventually, but in the meantime I'm not panicking about her riding in a Graco.

Children properly restrained in the back seat are very safe.

Although it seems surprising, most crashes do take place at less than 30 mph. Despite how fast the cars are initially traveling, there is usually braking involved, which slows the speed considerably, even if it's right before impact. Also, the 30 mph crash test simulates a crash more severe than most crashes that happen at 30 mph due to the fact that the crash-test car is hitting a solid barrier that transfers most of the impact back onto the car/occupants.