CU continues to play big role on child safety seats (June 2003).

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Consumers Union took part in a June 11 news conference organized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to announce the agency's new ease of use ratings for child safety seats. The ratings were mandated by automotive safety legislation passed in the fall of 2000 after the Ford/Firestone debacle.

NHTSA invited CU to participate in the press conference as an acknowledgment of the important research and testing CU has done for three decades to improve the safety of car seats and of our critical input to the agency on the new ratings system.

CU is currently the only organization that regularly crash tests child seats, evaluates them for ease of use and how easy they are to install in cars, and reports its results to the public through Consumer Reports and consumerreports.org. According to the agency, it was the first time a consumer group had been asked to join such an event. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety was also invited to participate.

Senior Vice President for Technical Policy, R. David Pittle, spoke at the news conference and was joined by our product safety counsel, Sally Greenberg, who regularly works with the agency on automotive safety issues. Baby & Child Products engineer Werner Freitag and ATD's auto engineer Jennifer Stockburger, both from CU's Technical Division, also contributed their expertise to our presentation at the press event. Coverage of the event appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, MSNBC and on CNN.