If You're Really Worried About Your Infant Car Seat...
First, consider that if large numbers of babies had been seriously injured or killed by infant car seats flying off their bases in real life crashes, that epidemic would also be on the news. Crash test videos are valuable in analyzing how car seats might perform in a crash, but real world crash data trumps simulations. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia studies real-world vehicle crashes and the effects on young children. “Our investigations of real-world crashes over the past ten years found infants in rear-facing car seats had an extremely low risk of injury in a crash. Of the crashes studied, very few infants in rear-facing seats were injured,” Kristy Arbogast, PhD, engineering director at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, said. “Of the few injuries we did see, most were minor and without long term consequences.”In a county where I volunteer as a child passenger safety technician (CPST), the infant seat use rate is about 99 percent, and there have been no children under age 14 killed in vehicle crashes in over 7 years. Without question, car seats save lives. That doesn't mean we shouldn't push for higher safety standards, but changes in crash testing requirements should be very carefully weighed to determine which will actually result in a safer car seat.
What's Different About These Infant Car Seat Crash Tests?
The crash tests discussed in the Chicago Tribune article are part of the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). These tests look at occupant protection provided by the vehicles themselves, and not the infant car seats. The type of testing done for NCAP is completely different from what's required for car seats, and in fact, the 35-mile-per-hour crash tests used in NCAP are more severe than the overwhelming majority of real-life crashes.Of the 66 crash tests where infant car seats were used, 9 of the infant car seats separated from the base and nearly half exceeded head or chest injury limits. Two infant car seat models were recalled as a result of their performance in these crash tests.
It's important to note, too, that some of the results aren't actually due to problems with the infant car seats. According to the Chicago Tribune article, in one vehicle, the frontal crash test caused the back seat's top and bottom seat cushions to separate, and in that vehicle, two infant car seats didn't fare well. The same infant car seats passed crash tests in vehicles where the back seat remained intact.
One infant car seat that separated from the base, the Graco SafeSeat, remained attached to the base in five other crash tests. The issue must be repeatable in order to show a true problem with the infant car seat itself. Graco has sold more than 600,000 SafeSeat infant car seats, and according to the Tribune article, has received only one report of a SafeSeat coming off the base.
What Are Federal Infant Car Seat Safety Standards?
The current federal standard for crash testing car seats is a 30-mile-per-hour sled test done on a bench seat. This test is said to be more severe than 95 percent of real-world crashes. The NCAP tests, done in a vehicle at 35 mph into a rigid barrier, have crash forces that are significantly higher than the 5 mph difference might suggest on the surface. The NCAP tests are much more severe.Like many car seat safety advocates, I've long said that there should be more crash testing required for car seats. Current federal standards do not address side impact crashes, which are less common than frontal crashes, but tend to be more severe and cause more extensive injuries. Some car seat companies say they do side-impact tests, but with no federal standard, parents have no way to evaluate those claims. Update: NHTSA is now developing a side-impact crash test standard for car seats.
Realistic Infant Car Seat Crash-Testing Options
The Tribune article mentions that car seats could be better evaluated for safety if they were crash-tested inside real cars versus on sleds. That's true, but the cost and time implications of requiring that on a federal level would be astounding, due to the myriad combinations of car seats and vehicles that would need to be tested.The NCAP tests showed that babies could be injured when their heads hit the vehicle seats in front of them, an injury that can't be shown in a sled test since no front seat is present. The speed of the required sled tests already surpasses that of most real-world crashes. Perhaps the test sleds should better represent a vehicle interior, to give a better idea of how the car seat might respond in a real-life crash.
Car seat manufacturer Combi has started using a different sled with greater forces, more like those in the NCAP tests, for their infant car seats. Combi recalled Centre and Shuttle infant car seats based on the NCAP tests, despite no real-world reports of seats separating from bases. Using the new sled test, Combi engineers found that a different spring kept the seat on the base, and sent new springs to Centre and Shuttle owners.
Though Graco disagreed that their SafeSeat car seat was properly used in the NCAP tests where it came off the base, their newest infant car seat release, the SnugRide 32, is being promoted as crash-tested to NCAP levels, which they say is approximately two times the required car seat standard.
Though there's debate about the speed increase on crash tests actually making car seats safer, it might be helpful for NCAP tests and car seat tests to be more alike, even just for comparison's sake.
NHTSA has promised to review the NCAP infant seat crash test data quickly so parents can decide how to act on available information, and so additional safety standards can be enacted if they're warranted.
