However, she does have a child on the driver's side, and 1 on the passenger's side....so apparently it's not horrible enough to make her not use it.
well, no. it's not. I debated even posting that information for fear of causing worry. While the relative risk of right side impacts is high
er, it's still rather low. In many cases it's just not practical or even possible to avoid having a child passenger side outboard.
Did you check out the numbers from that study report?
Near-seated children in the second-row have a 3.04% fatality risk for right-side (3 o'clock) impacts. This is nearly twice the 1.53% risk for near-side second-row children in left-side (9 o'clock) impacts.
Overall, right-side impacts have a 37% higher fatality risk than left-side impacts, irrespective of second-row seating position.
Overall, children seated behind the driver have an 8.1% lower fatality risk than those seated behind the right-front passenger, although the center second-row-seat has the lowest risk (0.27%).
Children in the second-row have a 65-71% lower fatality risk than the driver with the lowest relative risk in the center second-row-seat (0.29) and highest in the second-row right position (0.35).
The bolding and formatting are mine. That right side impacts are most dangerous
regardless of position is quite an eye opener.
left side is 8% safer overall- which is minimal when we're talking less than 1%.
that the fatality risk for near side right is nearly double that of near side left doesn't add up with the overall difference being only 8%. so I take that that to mean the left side must be more dangerous in other types of crashes in order to come closer to balancing out. :shrug-shoulders:
Really, a lot more than crash statistics goes into deciding child placement. Are you doing school drop-off? Do you often park on the street and need to load from the curb? Where can you get the best install? How many children do you have? Is the toddler going to poke the baby's eyes if they're side by side?
We currently have ds ff on the driver's side. I know center is safest, but his seat blocked my view enough that we're all safer with him outboard. He was rf passenger side until 2 months ago because that was the only place his seat fit while still leaving dh enough room to drive and we'll have another child rf in that position by the end of the year. I'm not worried about that because I know I'm doing everything else I can to keep us all safe.
What is more important than position is whether you are choosing a seat that fits your child and your vehicle and that you are using it correctly. Choose the safest vehicle you can afford and keep it properly maintained. lastly, don't drive stupid- hang up, be alert and if that study is any indication, exercise extreme caution when turning left.