Oh this is interesting?

childrestraintsafety · Sep 20, 2006

http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/where2buy/carseats/recycling.html

We were recently in a very minor fender bender in a parking lot where both cars were going less than 5 miles per hour

Which I guess isn't so fast really....

We replaced the convertable seat, but not the booster and got reimbursed by the insurance agency. Our rationale was that the possibility that the booster was cracked seemd to have no effect on the safety as the point of the booster is only to raise the child up so they seat belt can fit correctly.

Since then I have received information that suggests that the seats were safe. According to SafetyBestSafe U.S.A., the National Highway Safey Administration recently reversed its recommendation to discontinue use of safety seats involved in a crash. IF the safety seat and the door next to it were not visably damaged, the air bag was not deployed, no one was injured, and the car could be driven, the safety seat need not be replaced.

What do you CPST think about that last sentence?

skaterbabs · Sep 20, 2006

The problem with that statement is that the manual for the seats trumps anything NHTSA says, and every manufacturer except Britax says to replace no matter what. So by not replacing the seat, they are going against manufacturer's instructions.