Breaking News: Consumer Reports Retracts Infant Seat Report (pin to 1-20)

[alandenisefields]

We are covering this breaking news on our blog and in the car seat message board. FYI!

Alan & Denise
BABY BARGAINS

[MarisaSF]

Here's one link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_bi_ge/infant_seats

[daisymommy]

I'm not really sure what to think or feel about this--considering the fact that where I am, most people drive 50 mph. all around town, and 80 on the highways. So if CR was supposed to only test at 35 mph. then how do I know the car seat is safe on the highway if it isn't tested at high speeds?

[o_mom]

>I'm not really sure what to think or feel about
>this--considering the fact that where I am, most people drive
>50 mph. all around town, and 80 on the highways. So if CR was
>supposed to only test at 35 mph. then how do I know the car
>seat is safe on the highway if it isn't tested at high
>speeds?

Because 97% or more of crashes involve impact speeds of LESS than 30 mph (University of Michigan researchers studied this). It is very easy to think that 30, 35 and 38 mph is slow, but there is almost always significant braking before any impact. That is why cars are not even tested at higher speeds.

A 70 mph impact is nearly unsurvivable for ANYONE. Those are the ones you see on the news where the car is crumples into a little ball with pieces scattered all over the place and no survivors.
Thankfully, those type of crashes are very, very rare.

In addition to this, a large part of the safety of a child seat is that it is attached to a car which has crumple zones to absorb impact, so even in a crash where the impact speed was 35 mph, the car will absorb much of the force and be more like an 18 mph impact on a sled test.

[kijip]

Before people crash they hit their brakes. The vast majority of crashes, even on freeways, have an *impact speed* of less than 30MPH. Comparing it to driving speed of say 75MPH (something I have been driving at a lot lately!) is not the same thing. The CR test is bascially like a car slamming, without braking, into a brick wall at 70MPH. Not a real world situation. A crash of that impact speed is a miracle to survive, regardless of age or restraint system. The other thing to consider is that impact speed is based on the relative speed of the cars around you and the direction in which you are moving at impact.