Alarming NHTSA Car Seat Test Results

Chicago Tribune's investigative reporter Patricia Callahan recently came out with a story questioning car seat safety. Watching the videos of these NHTSA tests alarmed me a lot. Please check out for yourself and judge these videos on Chicago Tribune's site. Like me, you'll probably see that what seems to be safe (and some expensive) car seats are not really protecting their passengers (our babies) as they claimed. From the videos, an infant car seat flew off its base smashing the baby dummies face first to the back seat of the car (note that some videos are really disturbing). Of the 66 car seats that were tested, 31 seats either flew off their bases or exceeded injury limits in a series of frontal crashes. These tests were conducted by US federal researchers using 2008 model year vehicles.

Why NHTSA didn't report the test results to the public?
Questions were raised in news media as to why these test results were not revealed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Chicago Tribune investigation found them buried in thousand of pages of test result from NHTSA and would probably have stayed buried there if they hadn't done their investigation. Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator said "What you've uncovered totally reveals the flaws in the current safety standard and also NHTSA's negligence in not reporting this to the public". Although the purpose of these tests were meant to check the safety of cars in which the government describes the tests as research (I don't even know what they meant by that), the disturbing results when they put those car seats inside should have raised alarms within the agency and the testers. It should have triggered further and specific testing to definitely check the safety of car seats. If I were a tester and seen these results, I would have pointed it out to my managers or whoever is in charge to order further evaluation and testing. Do we have testers who have kids? I just don't get it why the agency didn't act soon. Some manufacturers even claimed that they were unaware of the test results and weren't informed.

Top to Bottom Review of Child Safety Seat Regulations Needed
Thanks to the Chicago Tribune story, the US government seems to get it now. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered a complete review of child safety seat regulations. NHTSA is now analyzing the test results and hopefully should come out with improvements and follow up. I think every parent (Canadian, UK, Asian, the more the better) should ask their government to have a look at these test result and reexamine the testing methodology being used by car seat manufacturers. Personally, I am now in doubt on the test methodology used by the car seat manufacturers to test their product. But, the NHTSA test results seems strange as well. I'm a bit confused as to why the agency merely branded the result as "research". If you look at the videos, they should give us a better response other than this.

Reactions from Car Seat Manufacturers
A spokesman (general counsel Dale Matschullat) from Graco's parent company, Newell Rubbermaid, described the test as "anomalous" asserting that it's "purely experimental" and "worthless for purposes of evaluating and comparing infant restraint system performance". I don't understand this response from Graco. I expected a better response. To Graco, ain't all testing "experimental"? Whenever you test your car seat, aren't you performing an experiment as well? Don't tell me that you put a live child on a real car when you test your car seat. I would have want you to look at the results and check your test methodology. It should have prompted you to conduct an internal investigation as well. If you come out with a similar video, and show us a different result, that would have given me (and other parent's as well) comfort. On the otherhand, Britax, the maker of the Companion car seat, said it didn't even know the government had tested its infant seat and could not "evaluate the implication of the results."

Please Test Further!
What's clear is further evaluation is needed by parties involved (parents, manufacturers and government). As I said, I still can't get over these car seat failures. It's such a big number. It's unlikely although possible that the testers have improperly installed these seats. This is a common and expected reaction amongst manufacturers but NHTSA stressed that the seats were installed by highly trained technicians. It's alarming, yes, but still in my opinion car seats are still the safest for your child in the car. I'm just right now trying to digest the results. Hopefully, manufacturers can come out with videos disproving these results or if proven to be correct should come out with better designs immediately. NHTSA also should look into and come up with new guidelines and a more definitive test to determine car seat safety. I hate seeing videos like that and gov't saying that it's "research". Video results are available for the following car seat brands/models: Graco SafeSeat, Combi Centre, Evenflo Discovery, Britax Companion, Peg Perego Primo Viaggio, Chicco Keyfit. See it for yourself here.