It`s become part of having a baby. Somewhere between picking out baby furniture and a name, expectant parents also pick out a car safety seat.
Even parents who haven`t bought into the idea that children restrained in such seats have a better chance of escaping a frontal car collision uninjured- or, at least, alive-buy the seats. That`s because they`re required by law in every state, and most hospitals won`t discharge a newborn unless parents have a seat.
So go to a store, get a seat, stick it in the car and you`re on your way. It sounds so simple.
If only it were.
Car seats seem to come in as many models as cars, and there`s precious little direction for parents who want to buy the most suitable one.
And parents who diligently use safety seats for their children in their cars wonder why there`s no safety equipment on buses, taxis or other forms of public transportation. One mother said she feels her children are in far more danger in a Chicago taxi than when she`s driving the family car.
These contemporary issues recall the long battle to require car seats.
By the late 1960s, the federal government was pushing safety seats for children, though it wasn`t an easy sell because much supporting evidence was anecdotal. By 1971, however, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, decided it had enough evidence to set standards for such seats. The agency, however, lacked authority to require anybody to use the seats.
Convincing parents wasn`t easy.
A large portion of opposition came from parents who suggested the do-gooders in Washington never had been forced to drive long distances with a cranky, crying child strapped in a seat and unable to lie down and go to sleep.
Mothers, especially, had a difficult time believing their precious baby would be safer in some cold, impersonal car seat than in Mommy`s loving arms. One mother said angrily: ”If anybody thinks I`m going to put a baby of mine in some contraption in the back seat where I can`t reach him. . . .” She refused to buy a seat for her children, though her now-adult daughter has one for her child.
And no idea emanating from Washington can escape politics and ideology.
At the first suggestion that states might consider requiring child seats, opposition came from people decrying ”Big Brother`s” encroachment into family issues that were none of the government`s business. Safety wasn`t the issue, the argument went; the issue was who has the right to decide what`s best for a child-the parents or the government?
But in 1978, seven years after the NHTSA came up with its standards for child safety seats, Tennessee became the first state to mandate their use. The state imposed a $50 fine on any driver-not just parents-who had a child younger than 4 in the car without a safety seat.
Within four years, the Centers for Disease Control reported, the number of children younger than 4 killed in crashes in Tennessee was cut in half, and injuries were down 30 percent.
Today, with all states and the District of Columbia requiring such seats, the statistical base is much larger and impact of using seats more evident.
”Our studies show the possibility of death or injury is reduced by 70 or 80 percent” when a child is in a safety seat, said Barry Felrice, associate administrator for rulemaking in the NHTSA.
Statistical evidence worked where emotional appeals apparently did not. By 1983, the majority of states required safety seats, and by 1985 all states and the District of Columbia joined in.
Illinois passed its law in 1983, requiring children up to age 4 to be in a restraining seat. Once too old for a child seat, the child must be in a seat belt until age 6, when the state`s regular seat-belt law kicks in. That law requires anybody in the front seat to wear a seat belt.
But it`s not simple for parents to meet the dual goals of obeying the law and protecting their children.
First, the same objections to having the law still exist, though the practical complaints seem to far outweigh ideological ones now.
One mother complained she has no way to restrain her infant if they`re in a taxi-unless she drags her car seat along. She asked that her name not be used because, when she has to take a cab, she holds the baby on her lap and doesn`t want to get criticism from friends and family.
Claire Hartfield, a Chicago attorney whose daughters soon will turn 1 and 4, said she has found limousine services generally will provide a child seat- but only one.
Second, knowing you want to buy a good safety seat is a far cry from knowing what seat to buy.
The NHTSA is of minimal help, because its hands are tied legally.
The agency has minimum standards for seats, updated in 1981, and it`s illegal for any to be sold without NHTSA approval. The agency can verify that a given model has approval or give information about recalls of specific models. ”Beyond that, we can`t comment on them,” an agency spokesman said.
The NHTSA divides seats into two categories for testing and approval. All seats are given crash tests, simulating a car hitting a brick wall head-on at 30 miles an hour.
”If a seat is intended for a child under 20 pounds, we test it one way,” Felrice said. ”We place the equivalent of a 6-month-old in it.”
In addition to judging how well the seat protected the child, this test also measures how well the seat held the baby.
For seats designed for children weighing more than 20 pounds, who are thus less likely to be so small they`d slide out of a seat, NHTSA uses a dummy simulating a 1-year-old, about 32 pounds, Felrice said. Though any seat that failed to hold the child in place would flunk this test, he said a major focus is to ”measure the potential for injury on the head and chest.”
A small number of car seats are marketed as ”one size fits all,”
suitable from infancy through about 40 pounds. These seats would have to pass both sets of NHTSA tests, Felrice said.
But he agreed parents may not be comfortable with such seats and suggested they ”read the instructions that go with it before they purchase the seat.”
All seats, to be sold legally, must have passed the NHTSA tests. Check the seat before buying to make sure it has NHTSA certification, Felrice said. He also noted that car seats tend to be handed down from child to child or within families. In other cases, parents opt to buy a used seat, such as at a garage sale. Felrice suggested that parents at least make sure the seat was made after 1981, when the current standards took effect. ”There was no crash test before that,” he said.
When Emily Hartfield Harris was born almost four years ago, her parents, Claire Hartfield and Philip Harris, got one of the one-size-fits-all seats, Hartfield said.
”We got it because it did not have one of those big shields in the middle, which we thought might be uncomfortable for the baby,” she said.
Many seats have a bar or T-shaped shield in front of the baby. A recent Consumer Reports survey suggested that such shields are good, but should not be more than chest-high so as not to ”overwhelm” an infant or obscure the baby`s sight. Thus, Consumer Reports concluded, seats with that design probably are more appropriate for toddlers, not newborns.
With the one-size-fits-all seat, Hartfield said it was necessary to get a horseshoe-shape filler device to keep Emily from rattling around. But Emily quickly grew into it, she said, and to this day prefers it to her booster chair for long trips.
But when Caroline was born almost a year ago, she got a new infant seat that allows her to lie down. The seat seems much more comfortable than the one Emily used, but Hartfield said there`s a down side: ”The lying-down infant seat takes up two spaces, which means the older child`s seat must be on the left side of the car.” And that means extra locking devices are necessary.
Child safety seats require two steps. First, the child needs to be secured into the seat. Second, the seat needs to be secured to the car, usually with the regular seat belts. But some models require different kinds of clips under some circumstances, as Hartfield learned.
Felrice said parents should be clear how a child seat is secured and be comfortable with it before buying.
”Parents should make sure that the straps aren`t too complex,” he said. ”The biggest problem with child safety seats is their misuse. They`re not strapped in properly or they don`t strap the seat into the car seat. You need both restraints to be used properly.
”Sometimes if there are too may straps or they`re too hard, that can lead to misuse and hence a lack of protection for the child.”
In its January issue, Consumer Reports said its research determined that the Century 590 series, the Evenflo Travel Tandem series and the Century 565 series were among the best infant seats on the market. The Century 1000 STE series and Evenflo Ultara V 230186 model were the top picks for convertible seats for toddlers and infants that can be placed upright.
Hartfield looks at her seat-buying days without fondness.
”Frankly, after you`ve spent that much money on a car seat and it`s safe, you don`t ever want to look at the market again. We have one infant seat, a car seat and a booster seat, and I hope we never have to buy another one,” she said.
With the problem of selecting a seat behind her, Hartfield said the biggest hassle is simply switching the seats from one car to another.
”They`re very bulky,” she said. ”If you don`t have them in the center seat, you need a locking clip. We ended up buying extra seats because we have two cars.”
Another problem for parents who want to stay within the law is that rules vary state to state. Illinois, for example, requires that a 3-year-old be in a child seat; but in Michigan or Wisconsin, that child legally can be in an adult-size seatbelt in the back seat.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that children are safer if the car seat is in the back, not front, seat. Felrice agreed with that, but said the NHTSA`s statistics don`t note where the seat was placed, only if it was used. But common sense suggests that, in a head-on crash, whatever is close to the front of the car absorbs the most shock. Therefore, the farther from the front the child, the less likelihood of injury or death.
The agency therefore recommends safety seats be in the back. Further, he said, infant sets are most effective facing the rear.
”For an infant, you`d rather have the back of the restraint and the infant`s back absorb any force, because it`s stronger,” Felrice said.
But rear-facing seats have one drawback, he said. They can be dangerous in a two-passenger car equipped with air bags.
”We love car seats and air bags, but the two don`t always go together. We have warned the public not to put a rear-facing infant restraint in a car seat that has an air bag. You can imagine what happens: The air bag comes out of the instrument panel on the passenger side. In a rear-facing restraint, the back of the infant seat is close to the instrument panel. Air bags come out rather quickly; it`ll just fling that child into the seat back, and it can really cause serious injury to an infant.”
The NHTSA knows of no such accident to date, Felrice said, but it remains concerned because of some parents` reluctance to put children alone in the back seat.
Many rear-facing seats are designed so they cannot be attached to the car if turned around.
”In a test, the bag actually broke off part of the child safety seat,”
he said. ”For rear-facing seats, we strongly, strongly urge: Put it in the rear.”
But if the car has no rear seat, ”the only option is to push seat back as far as possible to get seat away from instrument panel.”
And pity the parent who takes small children on an airplane.
Most carriers let infants fly free, on a parent`s lap. Most U.S. carriers let parents bring child seats on the aircraft for free and the infant, if under age 2, can fly for free-if there are seats available. But to guarantee an available seat, the parents must buy a ticket for the baby at varying costs.
Now there`s a move to require safety seats on airplanes, even if it means parents must pay a fare.
”I don`t want to have to pay for another airplane seat,” one mother objected. ”Flying is expensive enough already.”
Virgin Atlantic Airways hopes not everybody feels that way. The airline is letting passengers book infants into specially designed safety seats similar to those used in cars. But the cost is usually two-thirds regular economy fare.
Despite the hassles and objections, the pattern of state laws indicates that American adults are more worried about their children`s safety than their own. The first state to require seat belts for adults-New York-did so in 1984. By that time, 48 states and the District of Columbia had laws requiring child seats.
The last states to require adult seat belts did so in 1991. The last three states to require child seats-Alaska, Idaho and Wyoming-did so in 1985. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets standards for child safety seats, has up-to-date information on recalls. More than 200 models currently are under re-call. The toll-free Auto Safety Hotline is 1-800-424-9393. Have ready the name of the manufacturer, model name and number and date of manufacture-all of which should be labeled clearly on the chair.
CHILD RESTRAINT LAWS
In 1989, 3,685 children younger than 16 were killed in automobile crashes. All 50 states and Washington, D.C., have child restraint laws. Details on those in the Midwest:
State Illinois Indiana Iowa Michigan Missouri Wisconsin
Person Driver Driver Driver Driver Driver Driver
responsible
Child covered 6 5 6 4 4 4
to age
Adult belt 4 to 6 3 to 5 3 to 6 1 to 4 All 2 to 4
substitute OK ages rear seat rear seat
First time $25 $500 $10 $10 $25 $75
maximum fine
1990 fatal 153 90 36 152 87 74
injuries under 16
fatalities
8.8 9.3 7.1 9.3 8.3 9.0
fatalities
Source: Concerning Cars & Tools.
