Car & Caboodle: Safety

Safety

Is Your Booster Useless? Check This List!

The IIHS came out with a booster seat study today, highlighting the need for parents to be more conscious of their choice of carseats. A comprehensive study found that several popular models of booster seats were failing to do their job properly.

In a nutshell, belt positioning boosters only work to restrain and keep a child safe if the booster elevates the child to a seating position where a lap/shoulder belt fits across their body properly. A poor fit can actually increase the risk of abdominal injury in a crash. Although this premise is a simple one, the differences in the car seats and belts in various cars, and the assorted shapes and sizes of kids who might be seated in a booster, make evaluating booster seat fit complex and difficult. Additionally, boosters that can be used with and without the backrest portion, need to be evaluated as two separate entities.

In the end, the IIHS came out with a list of seats that performed (best and worst), when tested in several car models by an average sized six year old. Interestingly, many of the models that performed poorly are "convertible" styles that advertise themselves as the only seat you will ever need to buy. These same seats may have received favorable ratings in their five point harness and/or rear facing modes, but fall down miserably when used as a backless booster.

The study, while canning several models of boosters, is also a reminder of our need to be vigilant. It's not enough to pop our kids in a booster seat, if the seat does nothing to keep our kids safe. We need to check the belt fit in every car/booster combination that our children ride in. Also of note - price had little to do with the list of seats recommended. Favorable ratings were giving to seats in multiple price categories.

If nothing else, this study is a good argument to keep kids in five-point harnesses as long as possible.

October 1, 2008 in Car News, Safety | by Ciaran Blumenfeld | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Safety Tuesday: Shop and Plan Ahead for Child Safety

No one wants to plan for an emergency, but a little bit of planning goes a long way towards making the most of your vacation days and can help prevent a tragedy. Worth the effort!

If you are planning a trip then you will want to check out some of the offerrings at the Chicks and Cubs website. Some picks to consider:

1. Physical IDs for children to have all the information they need, ON them, to get back to parents quickly if they become lost. ID bracelets, Shoe Stickers, Shoe Tags, Dog Tags, Temporary Tattoos, Electronic Child Locator ($8.00-$30.00)

2. Wallet IDs These are great for putting all the important information in one place. Parents carry the card and hand it over to authorities if you child is lost. Also great for giving to other caregivers (child care on a cruise, playdates,...). This can also be a physical ID for tweens/teens - since they don't have a drivers license yet. ($10.00 for 5 cards)

3. Parking Pal Magnet This is a magnet that you put on your car. It gives children something to do while you get babies and/or other gear out of the car so they don't dart out into traffic in a parking lot. (set of 2 magnets for $16.00)

4. Information for before you go on a trip (to busy, crowded places!!). Kid Escape! from Child Abductors DVD - teaches kids physical moves to try there very best to ESCAPE from an abductor. ($12.00)