Question Fairly Minor Car Accident - Do I need a new booster?

Hello-
My pregger brain malfunctioned this week and I hit another car while pulling into an intersection.
Thank goodness none of us where hurt. My car is smaller and newer so it took more damage as my front bumper basically crumpled to take the impact.
The other driver was a licensed daycare transporting kids in a mini-van in WAY expired harnessed seats - that's a vent for another day. (Totally my fault that they got hit but - MAN. I very nicely told her to make insurance re-places those seats cause once they are in an accident they are no good and I did mention expiry dates to which she looked confused.)
Anyway I have 12! airbags in my car and none of them went off - no-one was hurt but there is a fair amount of damage to my bumper because of the crumple technology.
Now I know that a harnessed seat needs to be replaced after an accident BUT what about a booster? My six year old was riding on the opposite side of the car from the impact in a B505 booster. My first thought was to replace it (even though this may be silly) but then someone mentioned that a booster just raises the child up and if there where any forces applied they would have been to the seat belt not the booster??? Anyway not sure what to do here - seems like baby is taking all my brain cells
Thanks

It's somewhat of a grey area with non-harnessed seats. What does your ICBC adjuster say? What does your manual say, or what does Compass say? In the end, we always recommend erring on the side of caution, which means that when in doubt you'll want to replace your seat.

BTW, you're not alone--when I was 9.5 months pregnant with DS#3 I backed my SUV over top of my car, IN the driveway, during spring cleaning (it was off the road for trash removal..) Duuuuuuuuuh. $2600 damage for a bump because I landed up on the hood due to a hill!

-Nicole.

Haven't talked to ICBC yet - the shame day is next week
Ya its been a bad week for baby - I've been exposed to a deadly bacteria fallen and been in an accident.... BUT it looks like we are both A-OK! And my week is finally over - LOL. Thanks for sharing your pregger brain moment with me it helps to not be the only one....

So I just looked at the online manual and it has a blanket "trash it". That's kinda what I was thinking. Maybe ICBC will cover it but I'm not sure since it was my own fault. (The good news is my other seat wasn't in the car that day which is totally rare but at least I only need to replace one.) Looks like I'm shopping soon - I can use my parents spare until then.

If the manual says to replace the seat, you replace the seat. ICBC won't argue that (or if they do, let me know..) You can buy a new seat and get a cash reimbursement within a day or two from them--you don't have to wait for your claim to be dealt with.

-Nicole.

Hi-my car was rear-ended a couple of years ago. I had 3 seats in the back, two harnessed and one booster, but no kids in them as the ones I drive around are not mine! ICBC (well the adjuster I had) seemed clueless about the replacement of seats, so I had to explain and direct her to Transport Canada/BCAA info. One I did that a cheque was ready for me within a day or so (it's helpful if you have your receipts, other wise they will give you a standard amount per seat). At the time it was $85 per harnessed seat, can't remember about boosters. I did have to turn in all three seats before getting the cheque.

Hope this info helps. As Nicole said if you have any trouble, just speak with her and I know you will get action.

K.

ICBC is pretty decent about paying replacement cost these days.. if you had a Britax seat in there, you're not going to be walking away with $85.. you'll be reimbursed for the replacement. Don't let them try to pro-rate it, unless the seat was really near expiry.

-Nicole.

I'm pleased to hear about the improvements in ICBC in the last 2 years. Luckily I had my receipts so getting reimbursed was easy after I informed the adjuster of the guidelines. From my experience, at least at the time, the claimant needs to know the guidelines in case the adjuster doesn't, and be persistant when needed. However, from what Nicole says, it sounds like things are much better in this area and let's hope we don't have to pay a visit to ICBC anytime soon!

Well my meeting at ICBC didn't go as good as I hoped...
I'm supposed to bring the reciept for the booster I have that was in the accident.
(Um, OK hopefully I can find it.)
And they will look at it and decide if they can pay for a new booster based on my old reciept.... HUH?
Since the accident was my fault I'm gonna play nice - but WHAT?

OR Possibly I mis-understood her and she wants me to buy a new seat and bring in the reciept??? Either way they won't say if they are gonna pay for it or not.... Guess I could try.

You replace your seat.
Take the receipt to ICBC, with your old seat to be destroyed.
They cut you a cheque within a day or two.

There may be some issue if your seat was near expiry, or if you replace a $80 seat with a $400 one.. But for booster-->booster you should be fine.

If you're concerned, keep the seat boxed up (sealed) until the reimburse you?

When we were in a minor fender bender in January, our Graco CarGo (2 years from expiry) and our Graco Comfortsport (1.5 years from expiry) were in the car, unoccupied. We didn't have receipts for the Graco seats and we replaced them with 2 Britax Frontier seats (which were obviously much more expensive!). When we handed in our receipts, we also handed in a printout from the Sears website that showed the current prices for the Comfortsport and the CarGo, and within a few days we had a cheque for the full amount of the 2 Graco carseats we had, even though they were fairly close to expiring. I was pretty happy with that - I was worried they might pro-rate the amount they would reimburse. HTH!