Car accidents take more children’s lives in America than any other cause–about 900 deaths per year for kids under 5. To improve tots’ chances of surviving a collision, all 50 states require parents to secure them into car seats. Consumers Union tested the 25 best-selling seats for both infants and preschoolers by simulating a car hitting a stationary object at 30 miles per hour. On impact, the buckle on the Kolcraft 700 came undone, releasing a forward-facing “3-year-old dummy”; when not attached by its base the casing of the Evenflo On My Way 206 cracked with a “9-month-old,” and the Century 590 seat broke free of its base with the same dummy. “In a real accident [this] could be calamitous,” Pittle warns.
Evenflo, which recalled the 206 model in June, reacted mildly, but the other two manufacturers dispute the findings. Century says its chair has passed 200 similar tests since 1991-20 of which were even conducted by the same lab that did the work for Consumers Union. Kolcraft also insists that its product has been vigorously tested. Federal regulations that allow a gap between tests and safety claims may be responsible for the discrepancies. For example, companies can test 171/2-pound (“6-month-old”) dummies for seats they advertise as safe for 20-pound children, or 33-pound dummies for 40-pound children. Manufacturers can also claim they meet federal standards when they run crashes at 28.5 miles per hour, which is only about 87 percent of the force of the 30-miles-per-hour federal standard. In its tests, CU used the higher speed and both dummy sizes. (Century’s 590 and Kolcraft met the Feds’ lower standard in government tests.) Consumers Union is asking for a recall–a step neither is likely to take. For safety-conscious parents, there is something especially cruel in finding a hazard where there should be only reassurance.
