Parents with small children

[mailin 0]

I learned something new today. Most children are moved to 'booster' car seats when they reach 40 lbs. as most harness car seats only hold to that limit.

This is the reason I will be purchasing a car seat from the Britax line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azgBhZfcqaQ&NR


Jen

Arianna Frances

[Shell666 0]

Quote

I learned something new today. Most children are moved to 'booster' car seats when they reach 40 lbs. as most harness car seats only hold to that limit.

This is the reason I will be purchasing a car seat from the Britax line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azgBhZfcqaQ&NR


Jen

Wow. That's a very powerful message. If I had kids, I'd purchase it too.

'Shell

'Shell

[LisaH 0]

Speechless

I don't have children, but those of you who do...protect them!!

Be yourself!
MooOOooOoo

[BlindBrick 0]

Unfortunately 5 point seats aren't a panecea. My son was killed on septermber 30th in one. He neck was snapped and his legs were crushed when the car he was in was rear ended, shoving the rear seat into the back of the front seats.

If you have have only one child, I can not highly enough recommend placing the car seat in the middle of the rear seat, rather than to one side. It's more work getting the child in and out, but it can save their life.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[misskriss 0]

Thanks for that.. breaks my heart. Willem is about to switch from the rear facing infant seat to the forward facing. We bought him a Britax. I'll definitely get the Regent seat from them too when he's a bigger boy.

[mailin 0]

I actually thought of you and your family when I saw that video at first. I didn't know which seat your son was in - I'm very sad to hear the failure point was not the carseat, but the car itself.

Was the seat attached using LATCH? What was the year, model of the car? What car seat was he in (brand)? Was it rear or front facing, and if it was rear facing, what was his weight?

My husband has a two door honda civic and it is very difficult to get my daughter in an out of his car in her current seat and it will be close to impossible when she has to move to a bigger, rear facing seat. We will be looking into getting another car for him late next year but I want to be sure it will work best for a LATCH car seat. Some cars LATCH systems only support up to 45 lbs. even though the seat will support up to 55 - this will create a failure point similar to what you experienced with your son.

I hope I'm not being too forward with these questions, but I would like to learn from your experience. I'm very sorry for your loss and hope that your family is finding the peace it needs.

Edit to add: I'm posting this here rather than by PM so that others may learn also.



Jen

Arianna Frances

[lawrocket 3]

5-point harnesses should always be used with small children. The unfortunate thing is that eventually, they will move to a three-point harness. When? What age? How big? These are tough questions.

I made it through 30-seconds of that video. I just can't handle those things anymore.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[jonstark 8]

When you have kids all you have is kids!

[BlindBrick 0]

Quote

Was the seat attached using LATCH? What was the year, model of the car? What car seat was he in (brand)? Was it rear or front facing, and if it was rear facing, what was his weight?

He died on his mom's weekend so I don't know can't say with 100% certainty, but I think it was a Costco Scenera. I'm about 95% certain she was using a seatbelt instead of LATCH.

The seat was front facing, and he weighed ~29-30 lbs. The car was a 2000 Chevy Impala 4-door. he was seated on the passenger side of the rear seat. The car was struck from behind by a Tarus at an estimated overtake speed of 40 mph. The Impala series is rated as poor for rear collisions. To be fair, the institute that does these test test at a lower speed than 40 mph, so there is the possibility a car with a "superior" rating might have had a similar outcome. I know a very good engineering firm that specializes in acident analysis, so the car will be checked to see if it was a case of poor design or simply too much force. Unfortuantely, the county has been proceeding very slowly with the criminal investigation so the car hasn't been released yet. The DA's office tells me that they'll make a decision next week so I hope to have the engineers begin their work by the end of next week.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

When you have kids all you have is kids!

...and when you lose them, lose EVERYTHING.


I can't even imagine.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[mailin 0]

The Scenera rates well as far as convertible car seats go.

I hope you get answers from the investigations soon. If my understanding of LATCH is correct, it is part of the framework of the car itself, so if the seat was attached to the lower (and in the case of front facing) and upper anchors of the LATCH system correctly it may have been enough to 'anchor' the cars rear seat in place to prevent something like this. But one can never know for sure, and in the grand scheme of it all, it doesn't really seem to matter now does it?

I'm sorry again for what has happened to you and your family, thank you for sharing your experience.


Jen

Arianna Frances

[mailin 0]

Yes, this is hard to watch, but eye-opening.

The Britax line of seats (particualarly the Regent) is a 5 point harness up to 80 lbs. As far as seats attached using the LATCH system, and had to choose between a 3 pont or 5 point, the 5 point is better.

I have spoken to the woman that made this video as her second son was born just 4 days after my daughter. Celebrating his birth had been bitter sweet for them.


Jen

Arianna Frances