State Mulling Two Bills on Kids’ Car Seats

Lisa Hershey’s husband and two young children were in a car accident in August. No one was hurt, and insurance paid to replace nearly all of her car’s bruised parts.

Except two: the safety seats that kept her children from harm.

Insurers are not obliged to reimburse the cost of car seats involved in collisions, despite manufacturers’ warnings that even minor accidents can undermine their effectiveness.

The Hershey family’s scenario happens to thousands of California parents each year, most of whom do not realize that the same car seat that saved their child’s life in one car accident can prove to be a fatal liability in a second crash.

California legislators are considering a groundbreaking bill that would compel insurance companies to replace children’s safety seats even if they show no sign of damage from an accident.

It would be the first law of its kind in the nation, and one of two state Senate proposals meant to raise awareness about the hidden hazards of used car seats. The other measure, SB 567, authored by Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Daly City), would prohibit sales of secondhand seats.

Insurers support the ban on used-seat sales, but balk at being required to replace seats after every minor fender-bender.

If the bill passes, insurance companies would have to pay for about 3,500 new seats a year in California at a cost of $45 to $250 apiece--not much money, but a bad precedent, insurers say.

“We don’t want to become Wal-Mart for replacing seats,” said Lynnea Olsen, vice president of the Assn. of California Insurance Companies. “If I were a manufacturer, I’d recommend replacing them every week if I could get away with it--it drives up sales. We just want a reasonable standard.”

Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont), the insurance bill’s author, said insurers should cover child safety seats like any other car part, if only to encourage customers to use them.

More than 282,000 children each year are injured in car crashes. Used properly, car seats can reduce the risk of death by 71% for infants and by 54% for children ages 1 to 4.

“If they’re willing to replace a piece of chrome on a bumper, I don’t see why they shouldn’t replace equipment that could save a child’s life,” Figueroa said. “Do they want to see blood on the car seat before they replace it?”

More parents than ever understand the dangers of driving with young children unrestrained or in improperly installed car seats.

Under California law, passengers under the age of 4 and weighing less than 40 pounds must be restrained when traveling. Hospitals instruct new parents on using car seats before allowing them to take home newborns.

After government studies showed 80% of car seats were installed improperly, federal transportation agencies moved to create a uniform latch system and recommended a nationwide network of fitting stations. Some manufacturers have built integrated children’s seats into late-model cars.

Still, few parents--just 2%, according to a survey by federal regulators--understand that car seats can weaken over time or lose their structural integrity in minor collisions, even if they appear fine.

Buckles can bend. Straps and belts can stretch. Spidery cracks can shoot through the seats’ plastic shells, concealed by padding, safety advocates say.

“When we do checkup events, parents are just shocked to learn car seats have a shelf life,” said Sheryll Bolton, the nurse who coordinates the Buckle Up Orange County program.

Hand-me-downs and seats bought at swap meets or garage sales may seem like bargains, but they can have broken or missing parts. Secondhand seats typically do not come with instruction booklets, which are crucial to correct installation.

Above all, purchasers often do not know the accident history of used car seats, said Cheryl Kim, senior program consultant for SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A., a Torrance-based group that conducts car safety checkups.

“Californians especially like to recycle, but unfortunately car seats are something that should not be recycled,” Kim said.

Car-seat manufacturers say their products undergo a simulation to ensure that they can withstand the force of a 30 mph crash. But only once--manufacturers have no data on how seats would react in a second collision.

“We don’t know if you crash once at 20 mph and then have another crash at 35 mph, what that will do to the seat’s structural integrity,” said Randy Kiser, engineering director for Piqua, Ohio-based Evenflo Co., a top-selling seat maker. “We can’t make that determination in the field, and it’s simply not practical to test them.”

Evenflo and other manufacturers give their seats a six-year life span, placing federally mandated “born-on” dates on each product.

They are supporting both California car-seat bills, and not just because they might boost sales, they say.

“We want consumers to obtain safe car seats,” said Ron Moran, Evenflo’s vice president and general counsel.

Insurance officials take pains to stress that their industry also actively promotes safe car-seat usage.

USAA gives policyholders $25 rebates on all child safety-seat purchases. Several companies have unwritten, voluntary policies to cover the cost of replacing the products after crashes, ACIC’s Olsen said.

But across-the-board, mandatory replacements go too far, she said. Instead, manufacturers should set a threshold for determining which accidents are severe enough to warrant new seats, so that insurers would have a guideline.

“We’re just asking that the standard be reasonable,” Olsen said. “Is it reasonable to replace seats if you’re in a 2-mile-per-hour bumper collision?”

Consumer advocates say parents often do not know enough to ask if insurers offer voluntary seat coverage or to request replacement seats after a crash. The law must make insurers meet manufacturers’ guidelines, advocates say.

“The law says kids have to be in these devices,” said Kacey Hanson, chairwoman of the California Emergency Nurses Assn.’s injury prevention subcommittee. “They should at least help families use them properly.”

Both the insurance bill, SB 363, and the measure prohibiting used-seat sales received Senate approval in late May and are now being considered by the state Assembly.

In the meantime, the nurses group is coordinating Operation Replace Me, a state-backed pilot project in San Diego and Contra Costa counties in which rescue workers at crash sites apply decals to seat belts and car seats that say “I’ve been used in a crash . . . please replace me.”

Hershey, who is a state-certified child passenger safety technician, didn’t need the sticker’s reminder.

After her family’s accident, she immediately petitioned her insurance company to cover the $90 cost of buying new car seats for her children.

When she received no response, she replaced the seats herself. After 10 months, the seats from the accident still sit in her Sacramento garage; the insurance company has not paid a dime.

“I think about families who don’t have the money to replace their own seats,” Hershey said. “I can’t fathom why insurance companies don’t want to do this. The prevention these seats provide could actually save them money.”

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Seat Safety

Minor collisions and aging can weaken the structure and some parts of a child safety seat. Here are some areas to check:

Straps and belts can stretch

Hairline cracks develop in the plastic shells

Buckles can bend