Sitting Pretty
If they can make robots putter around on other planets, why can’t they make cars and child safety seats fit together?
We parents know that whenever we buy a car or rent one, buy a new safety seat or take Junior along in somebody else’s car, we’re in for a fierce struggle with belts and buckles.
The upshot of this quandary is, of course, nothing to make light of. Child safety seats are required by law for youngsters up to 40 pounds and 27 inches in height. Yet, says Phil Haseltine, president of the American Coalition for Traffic Safety in Arlington, Va., the seats are used incorrectly 90% of the time; the most common problem is that they are not fastened tightly. Even more chillingly, Haseltine says, the traffic accident deaths of up to 250 children a year could be prevented by proper use of safety seats.
Help is on the way in the form of a new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration standard called UCRA, for “uniform child restraint anchorages.” The bad news is, it won’t be here soon.
NHTSA’s proposal would require that new vehicles be equipped with uniform attachment points, and every new safety seat would have standard buckles to click into the vehicle latches.
“It’s a little odd-looking, but I’ve seen it and it works,” says Liz Neblett, an NHTSA spokeswoman. “We have a prototype. Now somebody has to come up with the exact plans. We’re hoping it will be in the next year or two.”
Until the new rules apply, the one foolproof method of shopping for safety seats is to drive to a baby products store and test them in your car.
Once you’ve made a purchase only to find that the seat and the car don’t match, about the only way to achieve a tight fit is to pack tightly rolled towels or newspapers under the seat--an inelegant solution, but one that’s endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
An integrated safety seat can be installed for a cost of up to several hundred dollars. The main drawbacks are that you’re stuck with it forever, and even when retracted out of sight, it leaves the regular seat less comfortable.
Horror stories of ill-fitting safety seats abound among parents. One of the worst involves Gregory L. and Suzanna Adler of West Los Angeles.
When their first baby, Jacob, was born last fall, they celebrated by bringing home a new Toyota Camry. Only then did they discover that their Century SmartFit infant seat, used in the center position of the back seat, left Jacob sitting upright with his head flopping on his chest. And they couldn’t cinch the seat firmly enough on the little middle-seat bump to keep him from rolling dizzily.
The “seats are perfectly contoured for an adult rump--not for an infant seat,” Gregory Adler says.
Repeated trips to dealerships, complaints to Toyota regional offices and demands for a refund were made to no avail, so the Adlers sued Toyota in Los Angeles County Small Claims Court, eventually winning a $1,565 judgment. “You shouldn’t really have to become an expert on car seats when you buy a car,” Gregory Adler says.
Maybe not, but you can still get a pretty good education by visiting a knowledgeable retailer.
We chose the Nationwide Baby Shops store in Santa Monica, where Terrie Wall is the buyer and sales manager. We brought along a brand-new Mercury Tracer that we had plucked at random from a rental lot, and a couple of experts: Cheryl A. Kim, a senior program consultant with the nonprofit child-safety advocacy group SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. in Torrance, and Dana Michelle Carey, 5, of La Crescenta.
Wall said the first thing to do when examining any seat is to make sure it meets federal standards, shown by a label that reads: “This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft.”
It seems that most safety seats are designed with parents in mind. The best selling rear-facing seats, for tots weighing less than 20 pounds, are the Evenflo On My Way and the Century SmartFit, both about $79. Each offers a base that buckles into the car holding a detachable carrier you can tote without disturbing Junior’s slumber.
Among seats for the 20- to 40-pound set, there are more restraint and comfort options, making the choice more complicated.
One car seat option that poses a choice between safety and convenience is the overhead shield, which swings down over the child’s head and acts as a big, padded tray, such as the one on the Evenflo Ultara I, about $99.
“People like it because you can put toys on the tray, but it’s not a safety feature,” Kim said.
“I don’t recommend this one,” said Wall, noting that it has only a three-point seat belt, buckling between the legs and over the shoulders. Wall prefers five points.
But the shield was a hit with Dana. “I like to do this,” she said, sending her doll, Violet, dancing on the padded surface. Then she folded her arms and put her head down, declaring: “I can go to sleep.”
A feature favored by safety experts is the heavy yoke into which the waist buckles snap, as found on such seats as the Century Ovation T-Shield ($107.97). Although it is designed to make the restraints easier to snap together, it proved less of a hit with Dana, who seemed flummoxed when we asked her what she was supposed to do with the bulky T-shield.
Another seat that gets high safety marks for its firm restraint is the Evenflo Ultara V ($119.97). “I recommend this because it has a five-point safety harness,” Wall said. “It goes across her lap, between her legs and on her shoulders. This is what a race-car driver would use to keep from being thrown from a car.”
Dana was glad to get out of the Ultara V: “I’m free! I’m free! I’m finally free!”
Dana saved her kindest words for the plush Britax Freeway ($179.97). In addition to the embracing five-point harness, Wall pointed out, it also has a locking feature that keeps the seat cinched tight with any lap and shoulder restraint system.
“It’s soft and snugly like my warm bed,” Dana cooed, cuddling into the Britax’s posh upholstery. “I would go to sleep if I had my blankie.”
And we parents know that if anything is almost as good as a safe child, it’s a sleeping child.
