Important car seat safety information

M+K=3

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune included an article about car seat safety. Apparently during some crash test of vehicles, some car seats flew off their base causing severe damage to the dummy baby and dummy adult in the seat in front of the car seat; at only 35 mph. Two of the five that had the worst results were Graco Snugride and Safeseat. To read the article and see what seats failed any part of the test, check out www.chicagotribune.com/carseats 

AutumnBride929

Thanks for the info... definitely not buying Graco now, lol!! 

BearkatLou

This is quoting the article: The infant restraint in the crash video, the Graco SafeSeat, flew off its base, but NHTSA officials said they didn't seek a recall because the seat remained connected in five other vehicle tests and, thus, it was "not a repeatable event."

2bulldogmom

I think I'm about to go crazy trying to figure out what's safe and what's not.  From cribs, to mattresses, to carseats, to baby bottles - I read something different everyplace I look.  It seems like nothing is completely safe anymore.  Thanks for the info, though.

M+K=3

This is true. But for me, that fact that it flew off at all was enough for me. However, it's an individual's choice how to interpret or use this information.

MidwestTexan

M+K=3:

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune included an article about car seat safety. Apparently during some crash test of vehicles, some car seats flew off their base causing severe damage to the dummy baby and dummy adult in the seat in front of the car seat; at only 35 mph. Two of the five that had the worst results were Graco Snugride and Safeseat. To read the article and see what seats failed any part of the test, check out www.chicagotribune.com/carseats 

The article also mentions that while the Graco came off the base in one test, five other tests were run and the seat remained connected and in tact for those trials...

Squishycheeks

I was a passenger in a roll-over accident with my youngest sister when she was just 6 weeks old. She was in a Graco seat at the time, and it stayed secure, thankfully! I think it's probably hard to prove any seat safe under all sorts of different circumstances. Good info though...

lhylcn

oh my...

sunkiss000

This is really upsetting me.. what is safe really? I know a year and a half ago they had a study and the snugrides were one of the only ones that past.. that's what I have currently.. was planning on re-using for #2.. but maybe not?

NDwife07

The article never said why the NHTSA didn't publish the results. It's entirely possible that the methodology was flawed, and that the results weren't a reliable measure. It's virtually impossible for a consumer to know for sure.

Is it scary? Of course. But the idea that Graco is intentionally selling unsafe seats by manipulating data is just ridiculous.

malex

I see where it talks about the Graco SafeSeat, but I did not see the Graco SnugRide mentioned in the article. 

Jacquie_Palma

On the news report of this last night they said that they believe that the one car seat that deatached was installed incorrectly.  Still scary though.

fallbride00

My thoughts are that nothing is 100% safe and reliable.  There will always be studies to disprove other studies and so on.  I would go crazy with worry if I thought about all of these results on baby products. 

Kitten80

Yesterday was the 1st day I got the Trib - crazy that the front page was on the car seats.  I read it, posted it on here for all you wonderful bumpies, and then emailed it to everyone I could think of that have or are having a baby.  Scary!  I am hoping they will keep reporting on attempts to change testing methods.  I am glad all the Chi ladies are as concerned with the results.

Kitten80

NDwife07:

The article never said why the NHTSA didn't publish the results. It's entirely possible that the methodology was flawed, and that the results weren't a reliable measure. It's virtually impossible for a consumer to know for sure.

Is it scary? Of course. But the idea that Graco is intentionally selling unsafe seats by manipulating data is just ridiculous.

I believe they said that the NHTSA didn't make the results public because the tests were actually for car safety ratings, not for baby seat safety ratings so they were not "obligated" to.  

The manufacterers (i.e. Graco) don't have to manipulate the data - what scared me the most was how the infant seats are normally tested.  They are tested via sleigh tests that do not have front seats and are not real cars.  So the results can be very different than what would happen in a real car which has other seats and parts that can effect the baby seat.  I think the biggest thing I am going to watch is recommendations that the seat producers test differently (more realistically) and car man. companies conduct testing and list the seats that work best in their cars!