Consumers Union, Publisher of Consumer Reports, Child Car Seat Fact Sheet

CONTACT:
Jennifer Shecter, 914-378-2402, shecje@consumer.org
Consumers Union

Consumers Union, Publisher of Consumer Reports, Child Car Seat Fact Sheet

Consumers Union (CU) regularly rates child car seats and reports the results to the public through its publications Consumer Reports (CR) magazine and www.ConsumerReports.org. Like all the products tested by CU, mystery shoppers buy the child seats at retail--just as a consumer would. The organization never accepts free samples from manufacturers and does not accept any outside advertising. CU experts also provide comments to the government on proposed standards and regulation as well as Federal and state legislation.

How Consumers Union Tests

In its last report published in the May 2003 issue, CU evaluated 25 car seats, including 14 infant or convertible car seats and 11 booster seats, priced from $20 to $230, for their crash protection, ease of use, and, except for booster seats, fit to vehicle in LATCH mode. Besides the overall score given to each seat based on these criteria, CU assigned individual scores for crash protection, ease of use, and fit to vehicle. All the restraints, except for booster seats that do not require LATCH, were tested in two modes--using the vehicle's LATCH system and using the vehicle's seat belts. CR tested the seats both ways since not all parents have new vehicles that are LATCH compatible, and the child restraints have to be designed for use with the vehicle's seat belts as well.

Crash protection: To judge crash protection, Consumers Union uses an outside laboratory to perform crash tests in which dummies with various sizes and weights are strapped into seats and run through a simulated 30-mph head-on crash. CU adds weight vests to the standard NHTSA dummies in order to increase the dummy's weight to match the manufacturer's claimed maximum for the seat. Currently, manufacturers are allowed to label a seat as safe for use up to a maximum child weight, while not required by NHTSA to test the seat with a dummy at that weight. CU has consistently urged NHTSA to require manufacturers to test car seats to the weight limit advertised.

CU looks for compliance with the criteria NHTSA has established for chest G's, head injury criteria, head excursion, knee excursion, and for infant seats, maximum back angle during the crash as well as all other requirements of the Federal standard (FMVSS 213). Additional items, such as proper functioning of shoulder belt guides of booster seats and toddler/booster seats used in booster seat mode, are also factors contributing to crash protection.

Ease of Use: CU evaluates how easy the seats are to assemble and use. This includes installation, adjusting harness positions, placing the child in the car seat, removing the child from the car seat, and securing the harness.

Fit to Vehicle: CU engineers, who are also certified child passenger safety technicians, install the car seats in various seat positions in numerous vehicles, including sedans, SUVs, and two-door vehicles.

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In addition to its regular car seat reports, each of the 40-50 vehicles tested every year at CU's 327-acre test facility in East Haddam, CT, is evaluated for how easy it is to install a child seat in the car. CU engineers install rear-facing infant and convertible child restraints using both the LATCH system and the car seat belts in every possible position and in every appropriate seating location of the vehicle. This evaluation, which can be found in every automotive review published by Consumer Reports under the heading "Driving with Kids," is ultimately reflected as part of the vehicle's overall rating.

Consumers Union's Car-Seat Safety Tips

· Remember that the safest place for a car seat is in your vehicle's rear seat. For children in rear-facing seats, the seat should recline at an optimum 45-degree angle. If it doesn't angle properly, prop up the seat with a piece of a foam "noodle" pool toy or a rolled-up towel at the bight of the vehicle seat (where the seat and backrest meet).

· Check the fit of any car seat you are considering in your own car to make sure that the seat is easy to use before committing to buying it. Conversely, if parents are buying a new car, they should take their child seats with them to make sure they fit properly.

· Don't forget to use the top tether when installing your child-safety seat. The top tether greatly improved crash protection in Consumer Reports tests.

· When possible, buy new. Don't accept a hand-me-down with an unknown history or one that is more than six years old. Check for recalled models at www.nhtsa.gov.

· When the seat is installed, try shifting it from side to side and back to front. It shouldn't move more than an inch. If it slips on the car upholstery, especially leather seats, put plastic mesh shelf liner under the seat for more grip.

· Harness straps in a rear-facing car seat should be at or slightly below the infant's shoulders. For front-facing toddlers, harness straps should be at or slightly above the toddler's shoulders. If a harness is properly snug, you should not be able to insert more than one of your fingers behind it.

· Replace a car seat that has been involved in even a minor crash.

· Return the postage-paid registration card so you can be notified of a recall.

Booster Seat Safety: How do I know if my kids have outgrown their booster seat?
Children should be in a booster seat until they can sit in a vehicle's rear seat with their back comfortably against the backrest, their knees bent comfortably over the edge, with the vehicle shoulder belt crossing mid-chest and the lap belt snug across the top of their thighs.
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Consumers Union's History of Protecting Children and Pushing for Safer Car Seats

Thanks in part to its testing and advocacy, child-safety seats have come a long way since Consumer Reports crash-tested them for the magazine's August 1972 issue and rated 12 out of 15 of them Not Acceptable. The magazine said most of the restraints "proved shockingly inadequate" and noted that "a revised Federal standard embodying a dynamic test for child restraints is obviously long overdue." In 1972, standards only required a slow, steady 1000-pound pull forward and upward on a wooden block shaped like a child's torso. In CU's view, such a test had little, if any, relationship to an actual crash.

Between 1972 and 1977, CR tested child seats four times using dynamic sled tests with a 31-pound dummy to simulate a 30-mph head-on impact into a fixed barrier. This made it the only publication at the time regularly crash-testing safety seats and reporting the results to both consumers and the government. The day after CR released its 1974 report the government proposed a stronger child-restraint amendment.

As of January 1, 1981, all manufacturers of child safety seats had to certify that their seats would pass a rigorous crash test--very similar to the one CU used in its own testing and had originally proposed to the government.

Consumer Reports raised safety concerns about child seats once again in 1995 when it judged three seats Not Acceptable because of their poor crash-test performance and petitioned the government to upgrade its test standards and procedures. One of the companies announced a recall shortly before the magazine went to press while another re-tested its seat after the magazine came out and announced a replacement-buckle program to fix the product about a month later. When CR performed follow-up tests using the replacement buckle, the seat was safer.

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View Files Sorted By Office: Consumers Union OPI, New York - Washington DC Office
West Coast Regional Office - Southwest Regional Office - Consumer Policy Institute

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