Dillipop
Well-known member
A friend was rear ended today. Her son was rearfacing in his Radian and is fine. I suggested that she needs to replace her seat since the manual says to replace after any collision.
However, she called and was told to replace after any accident and then was quoted the NHSTA guidelines. I told her I thought that was weird and mused that I wondered if she would get the same response if she spoke with a different representative.
So, she emailed them and got this response-
Hi: We recommend you replace your car seat once it has been involved in an accident. As stated in our manual on page 7 " Do not use restraint after is has been involved in any accident. Damage to the restraint may have occurred which could impair its ability to adequately protect a child."
To determine if your car seat needs to be replaced we recommend using the following NHTSA criteria. NHTSA's recommendation that replacement is unnecessary after a "minor" crash. A crash is considered to be minor and the child seat involved in it is safe for reuse if it meets ALL of the following criteria:
A visual inspection of the child safety seat, including inspection under any easily movable seat padding, does not reveal cracks or deformation that might have been caused by the crash;
The vehicle in which the child safety seat was installed was capable of being driven from the scene of the crash;
The vehicle door nearest the child safety seat was undamaged;
There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants;
The air bags (if any) did not deploy.
If you feel your accident met the above criteria than you should not need to replace your car seat. However if you have doubts about the safety of your car seat than it is always better to err on the side of caution and replace the car seat.
Best regards, Kristin
I find this quite confusing and contradictory and she agrees. She said she even said to the lady that her crash didn't meet the requirements for replacements but the lady didn't say clearly that she should replace or not.
What are your thoughts?
However, she called and was told to replace after any accident and then was quoted the NHSTA guidelines. I told her I thought that was weird and mused that I wondered if she would get the same response if she spoke with a different representative.
So, she emailed them and got this response-
Hi: We recommend you replace your car seat once it has been involved in an accident. As stated in our manual on page 7 " Do not use restraint after is has been involved in any accident. Damage to the restraint may have occurred which could impair its ability to adequately protect a child."
To determine if your car seat needs to be replaced we recommend using the following NHTSA criteria. NHTSA's recommendation that replacement is unnecessary after a "minor" crash. A crash is considered to be minor and the child seat involved in it is safe for reuse if it meets ALL of the following criteria:
A visual inspection of the child safety seat, including inspection under any easily movable seat padding, does not reveal cracks or deformation that might have been caused by the crash;
The vehicle in which the child safety seat was installed was capable of being driven from the scene of the crash;
The vehicle door nearest the child safety seat was undamaged;
There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants;
The air bags (if any) did not deploy.
If you feel your accident met the above criteria than you should not need to replace your car seat. However if you have doubts about the safety of your car seat than it is always better to err on the side of caution and replace the car seat.
Best regards, Kristin
I find this quite confusing and contradictory and she agrees. She said she even said to the lady that her crash didn't meet the requirements for replacements but the lady didn't say clearly that she should replace or not.
What are your thoughts?