New Study Reveals Poor Ratings For Children’s Booster Seats
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released warnings this week about commonly used booster seats. They warn that several booster seats reviewed by researchers do not do a proper job of positioning young children to fit in their seat belts properly, leaving them vulnerable in crash situations. Booster seats are advised for use with children who are over 40 pounds until they are 8 years old or 4 feet 9 inches tall. Children between the ages of 4 and 8 typically fall within the range. Booster seats elevate children to a proper height, allowing a seat belt to be properly placed across the child’s mid-shoulder and lower hip area, thereby avoiding potential liver and spleen injuries that could occur from lower-resting belts falling across the abdomen.
So which seats are safe and which ones are not?
The Institute for Highway Safety DOES NOT recommend the following booster seats:
Compass B505, Compass B510, Cosco/Dorel Traveler, Evenflo Big Kid Confidence, Safety Angel Ride Ryte, Cosco/Dorel Alpha Omega, Cosco/Dorel (Eddie Bauer) Summit, Cosco Highback Booster, Dorel/Safety 1st (Eddie Bauer) Prospect, Evenflo Chase Comfort Touch, Evenflo Generations, Graco CarGo Zephyr, and Safety 1st/Dorel Intera
The Institute DOES recommend the following 10 booster seats, calling them “best bets” for safety. They are:
Combi Kobuk, Fisher-Price Safe Voyage (with plastic clip), Graco TurboBooster, Britax Monarch, Britax Parkway, Fisher-Price Safe Voyage (highback), LaRoche Bros. Teddy Bear, Recaro Young Style, Volvo booster cushion and Safeguard Go when it’s used as a backless booster.
The Institute also named five “good bets” which were described as providing “acceptable belt fit.” They are:
Highbacks Combi Kobuk, Graco TurboBooster and Safety Angel Ride Ryte, and combinations Recaro Young Sport and Safety 1st/Dorel Apex 65, when used as highbacks.
FYI- The government recommends car seats for children up to 40 pounds and strongly recommends that all children ride in the back seat until age 13.
To see the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ratings for child seats, visit: http://www.safercar.gov/. For more information on this story, check out: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26962995/
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