Infant Car Seats and Broadside Crashes: Test Results from Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports announced today that car seats for infants often fail to withstand the impact of auto accidents when a car is struck by another from the side. Of the models tested in simulations of such impacts, ten failed, some “disastrously,” according to the magazine's February issue.
The car seats are rear-facing models that are required in Maryland for infants up to 1 year old or about 22 pounds. Car seat manufacturers are required to test the seats for head-on accidents, but not for broadside crashes, which kill about 30 infants a year in the United States.
As I write this post, my wife is out purchasing new car seats for our almost three month-twins as I expect are a lot other people in Maryland and around the country today. The irony of all of this is that I love Consumer Reports, to the point where I rarely buy anything other than their top rated product. The car seats we have now are made by Britax, a product that Consumer Reports had previously rated, you guess it, number #1. Britax also failed the test.
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