Question about safest place in van for kids

Hi, I have a 2006 Kia Sedona minivan with captain's chairs in the second row and a bench third row seat. I have 10 month old twins in rear-facing car seats in each of the captain's chairs in the middle. My almost 12 yr. old daughter sits in the middle of the third row seat with a regular lap and shoulder belt. I am wondering if this is the safest placing for all of the kids in the van. I was stopped in traffic recently when someone going extremely fast behind me almost rear ended me. They ran off the road to avoid the collision. But it started me thinking about how safe my oldest child is in the back so close to the rear of the car. Is it safer for her to be sitting in the front seat? Is she old enough for the front? She's tall, but only 68 lbs. I think the air bag doesn't activate in the van unless there is a certain amount of weight in the passenger seat. Are the two infant seats where they should be? I have another question about the infant seats -- the babies are getting close to the maximum weight for the Graco seats (22 lbs.), but I've read it is safer to keep them rear facing as long as possible. I would really appreciate any advice on these concerns. Thanks!!

I moved your post to the car safety forum.

I'm not a tech, but does your 12 year old have a headrest behind her head?? If not, than I would move her to a seat that does. I believe its safer to have something to help prevent the whiplash.

Hopefully the other Tech/advocates will have more advice for you!

Kids 12 and under should ALWAYS ride in the back seat. This cuts their risk of death by 36%.

http://www.car-safety.org/basics.html

She is safer in the 3rd row than the front seat. Frontal collisions are more frequent and more severe than rear-end collisions.

Edited to add that we're all safer in the back, just so you won't move her up on her birthday, hehe. Provided there are adequate headrests.

That's great that you want to keep the little ones RF... That is so much safer than FF, especially for infants/toddlers. What's your budget to new seats? Here are a few options:

1: 2 Cosco Sceneras ($40/each) that RF to 35lbs. Once FF you can use the Sceneras to 40lbs or get a FF-only seat (such at the Britax Regent/Graco Nautilus/new Britax Frontier)

2: Get something such as a Britax Marathon/Decathlon/Boulevard, Sunshine Kids Radian, or Recaro Como/Signo that can be used both RF and FF.

Hope this helps!

just wanted to add we are using both radians and scernas and love them. my sister has marathons and they are also wonderful...we just wanted to save a little $$.