Disappointed at police officer, and some Q's on RFing with S1 Easy Fit 65

[fumofu]

I bought a carseat for my ILs' car and had sent them to the police station that I went to because I had such a wonderful experience. Turns out the officer I saw no longer does the inspections. FIL knew I wanted to rear-face DS1. But when he saw that the officer had installed the seat FFing and commented on it, the officer said it was fine. FIL didn't want to push the issue and left it at that. When I asked via email, MAIL said inspection went fine.

I also assumed IL's would be educated on how to properly strap in DS1, since I got a good crash course when I went for my inspection. But when both IL's practiced strapping in my car, they looked like amateurs (chest strap was not at nipple height, etc).

So when DH helped to take DS1 to grandparents' car after visiting me and DS2 at the hospital, DH came back saying, "Worst case scenario," and told me about the seat. I will be asking my IL's the name of the officer and calling the station ASAP.

So I had DH turn the seat around. He didn't know how the LATCH straps worked, so he used the seatbelt instead. The seat is installed in the middle seat of a 2007 Ford Fusion. I bought the IL's the Safety 1st Easy Fit 65 from BabiesRUs.

My questions are:

Is seatbelt installation on this carseat OK? Or is LATCH safer?

Is it best to put carseat in the middle?

Do I need a noodle for this seat when RFing?

Thanks.

[rin]

Don't know anything about the seat, or the vehicle, but I can answer some of your questions.

Seatbelt vs. LATCH: neither is safer/better/worse; it just depends on whether you can get a solid install with one or the other. If you don't have LATCH straps, a solid (e.g. doesn't move more than 1" at the belt path) seatbelt installation is perfectly fine. I've never installed DD's seat with LATCH in our main car, since we currently only have 1 carseat rider (soon to change!) and just keep her seat in the middle, where we don't have LATCH hookups.

Middle seat: statistically speaking, the middle of the back seat is the safest position in a vehicle, since it's furthest away from any potential impact point. That said, some cars have weird humps, etc in the middle of the back seat, so one of the side positions is better because you can get a better install. If you can get a good install in the middle and it doesn't cause any problems for other riders, then yes, that's the best place.

Noodle: you basically need a noodle if you can't get the right angle of the carseat w/just the seatbelt/LATCH. I don't know your seat, but all the seats I've ever used have had some kind of angle indicator on the side where there's a line that's supposed to be level with the ground when it's properly installed. Alternately, if you have an iPhone or something else with a level measure in it, you can measure to see whether you have a 30-45 degree angle, which is the range of safe angles for a rearfacing seat (unless the rider is under 1, in which case it should be closer to the 45 degree angle). If your seat's back is somewhere in that range, then you don't need a noodle.

[amldaley]

The Fusion only has 2 sets of LATCH anchors - outboard seats only. It is permissible to use LATCH in the center position using one from each side. But then you would have to do a belt install on an outboard seat if you try to install a second seat.

I loved my Fusion until I needed to get 2 seats in it. It effectively becomes a 4 passenger vehicle vs 5.

[KrisM]

The Fusion only has 2 sets of LATCH anchors - outboard seats only. It is permissible to use LATCH in the center position using one from each side. But then you would have to do a belt install on an outboard seat if you try to install a second seat.

I loved my Fusion until I needed to get 2 seats in it. It effectively becomes a 4 passenger vehicle vs 5.

I know Ford allows sharing, but I can't tell what seat she has. I think it's in the titel, but it's not ringing a bell to me. Anyhow, OP, you need to also be sure your car seat allows sharing of LATCH before using it in the center.

[legaleagle]

Anyhow, OP, you need to also be sure your car seat allows sharing of LATCH before using it in the center.

The language you're looking for in the manual will likely be something talking about whether non-standard spacing LATCH installs are ok or not, not necessarily using the "borrowing" wording.

[fumofu]

Thank you for everyone's advice. I will check out the manual when I get home and look at the seat next time I see my IL's.