There are far too many wrecks in which adults involved walk away, while
infants restrained in child safety seats are seriously injured.
Child safety seat changes and auto industry changes in the way the seats are
installed have not meshed. There are hundreds of injuries every year from
CRS's being negligently manufactured or installed in cars not designed to accept
them safely.
A recent survey found that 80% of CRS's are installed incorrectly, and it is
not the parents' fault! There are now seven major types of seatbelts,
countless child-seat styles and many seatbelt systems now require special
modifications to ensure safety.
Most specifications for seat belt/CRS safety hail from when bench seats were
used, and the seat belt anchors were located at the rear of the seat
"bight" (crack in the seat). Seat belt anchors in today's cars
are rarely behind the seat bight, and more commonly are located on a stalk or
otherwise situated significantly forward of the bight. It has been
established since the early 80s that seat belt anchors forward of the seat bight
create a compatibility problem between child restraints and automobiles.
CRS manufacturers typically do not warn of which autos their systems are not
compatible. The manufacturers of these products have known for years that their
products do not fit in many cars in which they will be used, but have
failed to take responsibility to see that children are not injured and killed by
their unsafe products.
There have been some tremendous strides made in the last few years
in fixing this long-standing compatibility problem between child restraints and
automobiles. Child restraints made after September 1998 have to have
certain safety features that they did not generally have before, such as a lower
anchorage system that could be clipped into anchors in automobiles - so the CRS
is secured at the bottom tightly against the seat without using the auto seat
belt. The CRS head excursion limit was reduced by 3 and 1/2 inches, and
all CRS manufacturers complied by installing a tether on the top of the
restraint that hooks to the back of the auto seat. But the attachment
hardware to hook these new CRS features up in vehicles has been phased in, and
it is just this year that new car models are required to have a lower anchorage
attachment and an attachment to secure a child restraint tether on top. In
the meantime, there will be many years to come of injuries to children from
child restraints in automobiles made prior to this point in time. The
manufacturers are leaving the old restraints on the market and not recalling
them due to their failure to comply with current safety standards!
If your child is injured or killed in a child restraint that you believe was
used properly, there is a good chance that you are not to blame, and that the
product itself is primarily to blame for what happened.
