SAFETY SQUAD: Empowing Your Family

Chicco Key Fit: You can tell a CPS tech designed it.

If you read this blog, then you know that we call companies out when something's wrong, but we also praise those that care to "get it right".

While we don't endorse seats or take sponsorship from any particular manufacturer, we do have our favorites. One of our favorite infant seats is the Chicco Key Fit 30. The Key Fit 30 is a top-rated seat, but ratings often don't translate to actual ease of use or convenience for parents. In this case, they do!

Everything about the seat is thoughtful. While no seat installs itself, and everyone should seek out a CPS tech for assistance, this seat gives parents a fighting chance. We'll break down this seat into areas that relate to misuse of seats, in general....

Clek Olli Review

The Clek Olli is a backless, belt-positioning booster, rated for children 40-100 pounds and 40-57” tall. The Olli is one of two booster seats with rigid lower LATCH attachments. It is also one of a handful that allows LATCH to be used at all as a booster.

As with all boosters, the Olli must always be used with both a lap AND shoulder belt. Children 12 and under should always be seated in the rear seat, even if there is no active airbag in the vehicle. Since the Olli is backless...

Using LATCH Boosters with Offset LATCH

A new breed of booster has emerged in the last year. Some belt positioning boosters may now come equipped with flexible or rigid LATCH lower anchor attachments. This may seem confusing. However, the lower anchors are designed to keep the booster seat secured when your child is NOT riding in it. It should be made clear that these booster seats still require the use of a lap/shoulder belt to properly restrain the child. Two examples include the Clek Olli and the Jane Indy.

The issue we’ve found is that in some vehicles, manufacturers have installed offset lower LATCH anchors. This means that the lower LATCH anchors are not centered in a seating position...

Choose Your Own Adventure

Installing a car seat is much like a "Choose your own Adventure" book from the eighties and nineties...are you still with me? If not, these books allowed you to take different paths to arrive at multiple endings, both good and bad. This is similar to the choices you take during a car seat installation. Let me stop here and say, 'With proper instruction you can learn the right choices and arrive at a great ending" .

Each step leads to a choice and that path leads to another. Eventually, you can arrive at a conclusion, but in this real-life adventure your particular ending can look and feel good, but still be wrong. Like the books you can have more than one good ending, but these endings don't happen by accident.

Both seat belt and LATCH installations can be correct in certain...

Why is installation so hard?

Before you bought your car seat, you checked with friends, family, searched the web and decided on a seat that had great reviews and even scored well on the "Ease of Use" charts. There were so many choices, but you picked a Graco or Britax or maybe a Peg Perego, to name a few. So why after all that research is your car seat so hard to use?

The same is true when you bought your car or SUV. Saab, BMW, Lexus, Honda, Mercedes, Toyota and others score well in crash ratings and come packed with dozens of safety features, but when you try to install that great car seat into your great car it doesn't feel or fit right.

First of all, it's not you. You are a parent that has cared...

Latch Error: Installing in the middle position

Parents usually know two things about car seat installation:
1. The middle position in the back seat is safer than the window seats.
2. LATCH installation is supposed to be easier than seat belt installation.

The first statement is true, the second can be true, but regardless most often parents naturally attempt to install their child's car seat using the LATCH anchors in the middle position. This is a logical decision, except that most vehicles don't provide middle position LATCH anchors. In fact, parents are using the inside anchors of the window seat LATCH anchors.

We know... it doesn't seem to make sense. If vehicle manufacturers are required to provide two sets of anchors, why not install one set in the middle?  One reason may be that installing two car seats side-by-side using LATCH can be difficult (one middle, one, window). Regardless, the issue remains.

We find that about 90% of vehicles don't have middle LATCH, but about 50% of parents who use LATCH attempt to use LATCH this way. How do you know if you have middle LATCH? Look in your vehicle owners manual. If you can't figure it out, please seek out a CPS Technician.  Good luck.

LATCH Error: Kids over 48lbs. using LATCH

If you have jumped on the higher-weight 5-point harness band wagon, GREAT! You rock. But don't think you are problem-free. If you're using LATCH, check your car seat manual and vehicle manual to check the weight limit for the LATCH anchors. Usually, your seat will only allow LATCH forward-facing to 48 lbs. Some vehicle manufacturers have lower weight limits. Once you reach those limits you must switch to lap & shoulder belt. Check for instructions on tether use and visit your local CPS tech to get some help.

CPS Techs…Yeah We’re Geeks

“What we forget is that the “logical” tech world we take for granted is in fact highly arbitrary, whimsical, and proprietary. Why can’t you plug cell phone X into cell phone Y’s charger? Why will phone X, but not, phone Y work in Europe? Why won’t a document created with Word 2007 open in Word 2003? If you follow the world of technology, you probably know the answers to these and other mysteries. Folks who don’t are probably getting real work done-until they blow up their cell phone or can’t open a Word document from their boss. And that’s when, inevitably, they’ll once again depend on the kindness of geeks.” (Stephen Manes, PC World September 07) 

“What we forget is that the “logical” car seat world we take for granted is in fact highly arbitrary, whimsical, and proprietary. Why can’t you install a Snugride into a Safeseat base? Why will a ‘07 Jeep Cherokee, but not, a ‘07 BMW X5 allow LATCH use in the center rear position? Why shouldn’t I turn my one year old forward-facing in our new Marathon? If you follow the world of car seats, you probably know the answers to these and other mysteries. Folks who don’t are probably getting real work done until they have a new baby or they buy a new car. And that’s when, inevitably, they’ll once again depend on guesswork or bad advice.”

Most people can identify with the first scenario. They either rely on computer experts or might be IT pros themselves. Given that, doesn’t the behavior outlined in the last sentence of the second scenario seem insane? Both problems can be solved with the help of experts. Sadly though, many parents who wouldn’t hesitate to ask for computer help don’t seek expert assistance when dealing with their children’s safety and car seats. We must question this behavior since the stakes for scenario two are far greater. 

Please, let a car seat tech be your “geek”. 

82% Wrong?....Really?, Yes Really.

In the NHTSA technician training curriculum, it is clearly stated that over 81% of Car Seats are incorrectly installed with an average of 3 misuses per seat. This statistic comes from a 2001 report conducted by Safe Kids USA.

In the recent Chicago Tribune article, the authors referenced a misuse rate of 72%. This statistic was taken from a 2004 NHTSA report of six states (Illinois was not included).

If we look closely at that report, 76.9% of the CRS checked involved the first 4 car seats parents can use from birth through toddler age. These systems, Infant through Forward-facing only averaged a misuse rate of 82.15%

This is the information that really matters. Very simply, if we can educate parents early enough, those parents are more likely to view proper CRS use as a priority throughout the life of the child, and by default, will value proper installation in the remaining types of restraints.

So what about 2007?

These studies reference statistics from 3 years ago, but despite lengthy efforts the numbers may be getting worse. Many technicians and instructors in the Chicagoland area experience misuse rates in the nineties.

Safety Squad works with many parents before the child arrives, but in cases where seats are already installed...98% have been incorrect. This is not a problem created by parents, but it can be solved in your family.

As always, the answer is to ask for help.