Replacing boosters after minor accident?

Do you replace a booster seat in a minor accident? I’m wondering about booster seats. In theory, the seat belt does the work of protecting the child and we don’t replace a seat belt in minor accidents. I’m interested in your opinions. I know the official answer is to always replace a car seat in any kind of accident.

We were in a minor accident. Someone hit my car while it was parked and there are a few scratches and a minor dent or two on the bumper and trunk door of my 2013 Toyota Rav4. I had a Chicco KidFit ZIP 2 in 1 belt positioning booster in highback mode in the center of the backseat.

I appreciate your advice. Thanks so much!

Your Chicco requires replacement after any crash. The manual specifically says so. Not all carseats require replacement, but Chicco does.

Wendy

Thank you Wendy. I know what the manual says. I am assuming it's because they don't crash-test seats that have been in minor accidents or major ones, for that matter and they don't want liability due to the unknown. I'm just interested in why boosters would ever need to be replaced because they aren't doing any of the safety work. They just boost the child up so the seat belt can protect them. So what it is that makes a booster unsafe to use in a minor accident? Boosters function totally differently than other car seats and that is why I am asking.

The booster is taking crash forces at the belt path. The lower anchors take crash forces. Whatever's in use.

You're also welcome to call Chicco and ask this.

I'm sure they do test minor crashes as best as they can (not sure how slowly the sled bench can go).

Wendy

Thank you Wendy! Whenever I read this forum, I always value your insight. I have reached out to Chicco via email and I will share their response when they reply to me (just in the off-chance anyone else is interested).

Fortunately for me, the other party's insurance will pay for a new booster (considering the Britax Highpoint, if anyone knows anything), but I have no choice but to continue using it until the new car seat arrives. My accident met NHTSA criteria, but I know Chicco's manual doesn't go with them, so it will be interesting to see what they say about at least keeping the low-back portion (of a practically brand new seat) as a back-up for emergency use. (Which would be better, no car seat or a low-back that had been in a NHTSA approved accent?)

I understand the point about the crash forces, but my point is that the LATCH feature is totally optional and has nothing to do with safety, but rather convenience so it doesn't become a projectile when unoccupied. Because of this, so what if the LATCH has been weakened in an accident that meets NHTSA guidelines? I mean you can safely use it just sitting on the seat and not connected to the vehicle at all. I can see how maybe there could be an issue with it in high-back mode if it somehow could interfere with the seatbelt (although I am skeptical of this as well), but I just don't see how a low-back booster in an accident that meets NHTSA criteria could virtually ever be compromised when all it does is boost the child up so the seat belt can protect them. Totally different scenario with boosters than all car seats.

I can't say which is better. No booster is bad, but so is using a seat that isn't approved for use. What I'd do is go and get a $10 backless booster while you wait for everything else to shake out. Either a Harmony Youth Booster or a Cosco Rise. That way you know you have a safe seat, which is not something you can say right now. Chicco doesn't follow NHTSA criteria, so it doesn't matter that the seat meets those. They'll also tell you that no, you cannot use part of a booster that's been crashed.

Wendy

To be honest with you, I am comfortable using it and going with the NHTSA until I get the new one. I am aware that Chicco has different recommendations than the NHTSA, but as a parent I have to look at all the information and make my best informed decision about how to keep my child safe. It’s not like the NHTSA is making recommendations only for car seat manufacturers that agree with them. They are making their recommendations for ALL car seats. Now, individual manufacturers can make their own recommendations that differ from the NHTSA and then you have to make a decision. I will give you that individual manufacturers are probably in a better position to make recommendations about their own products than the NHTSA, but they also have plenty of reasons to make recommendations in their own interest. It’s simpler to make the same guidelines for all their seats without differentiating between the functionality of boosters versus other car seats, it encourages the purchase of more seats, but mostly it cuts off liability and limits it as much as possible.

I am not trying to be argumentative. It’s good to be a rule follower and nothing is more important than our children’s safety. People on this forum are car-seat educated. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of car seats that protect children in accidents were used or installed with some kind of user error. It’s actually horrifying to know just how incorrectly many car seats are used. When my child was an infant I went to my local police station to see if the the CPS techs could get a tighter install than I could. Not only did they install it way with more than an inch of wiggle room and barely spent 3 minutes doing it, never reading the manual, they apparently had never heard of car seats with built-in lock-offs. My mind was blown! Obviously, we know better and so it’s not an excuse, but as far as a low-back booster is concerned, I may as well be using a phone book to boost my kid up. Unless of course, I am missing something about the way boosters work, which is why I posted here.

Below is what I wrote to Chicco. I will post their response when they reply. In the mean time if anyone can answer these questions, I’d really appreciate it.

I have used both your NextFit carseat and KidFit Zip booster seat and I have been very pleased with your products.

I have some questions about your booster seats. I see that in the manual it states that being in any accident, no matter how minor, requires the replacement of the booster. What about the NHTSA’s recommendations of when it’s safe to reuse a car seat after a minor accident that meets certain criteria? I understand why carseats should be replaced and could potentially be compromised, but I do not understand the need to replace boosters and I am hoping you can give some insight into this. Booster seats simply raise the child up so the car’s seat belt can fit them properly and the seat belt is doing the safety work. LATCH anchors are optional, so you could just have the device sitting on the seat and not even connected in any way, but it still would need to be replaced? The point is, if the LATCH anchors were compromised from crash forces, why would this compromise the safety when their only purpose is to keep the seat in place?

If your boosters were in an accident considered minor by the NHTSA, why would it potetinatlly be compromised? Is it just that you don’t have enough data to say when it would be safe and when it wouldn’t and don’t want to be liable for the unknown? Furthermore, if the seat in high-back mode were compromised in a minor accident, would it possibly be safe to use the low-back mode, as a low-back booster literally does nothing but prop the child up?

Slightly different, but somewhat related, you also don’t allow "latch borrowing" with your boosters, but isn’t it the case that on a booster seat, the latch only prevents the seat from moving around or being a projectile when unoccupied and if this is the case, why would it be unsafe to latch borrow specifically with a booster seat, in which the seatbelt is doing all the safety work.

I hope my questions were clear. I am genuinely interested in some insight on these matters. Thanks so much for your time.

The booster is installed with LATCH, so even if it is unoccupied, an accident is going to stress the path the LATCH strap is following, even if it is minor. If the booster doesn't have LATCH hopefully it is buckled in when unoccupied, which means the seat belt is going to stress the plastic along its path. Both of those could cause the plastics being used to no longer be structurally sound, which means the booster would not be able to do its job of spreading the crash forces off the child's bones in the event of another accident.

I believe what Wendy meant above when she said "the booster is taking crash forces at the belt path" is that the areas of the booster the seat belt touches when a child is buckled into it absorb some crash forces. This means a booster is much more than a phone book. Boosters are generally shaped to be higher under the child's knees than under their bottom to reduce the tendency for the lower body to slip under the lap portion of the belt in a crash. Those armrests are really there to hold the belt down where the child's bones are the strongest and absorb some of the force of a crash. Boosters are highly engineered pieces of safety equipment, no matter how simple they appear. I would invest in an inexpensive backless or high-back booster until you get the money for a new one. That way, you have an extra booster down the road that is easy to use in a carpool, a friend's car, etc.