News

News

AAP Issues a Revision of CPS Policy Statement

Slight changes continue most aspects of familiar CR selection guidelines, but no longer specifies RF goal of age 2

In August, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a revised version of its policy statement titled “Child Passenger Safety.” The changes primarily affect the wording of recommendations for how long a child should ride rear facing.  While the former version, issued in 2011, indicated that a child should stay rear facing until at least age 2 or older, the revised policy simply recommends that children stay rear facing as long as possible, until the height or weight limit of their RF CR is met (without making age 2 the rear-facing goal).

Read More from “AAP Issues a Revision of CPS Policy Statement”

Ask an Engineer: How Do Load Legs Improve CR Performance?

This guest article continues SRN’s “Ask an Engineer” series with Dave Sander, CPST-I and engineer (formerly with Evenflo). This series gives an insider view of how CR engineers develop and design CRs, as well as new insights into CR functionality.

Load legs (aka stability legs, foot props) are not a new invention. They’ve been a common feature of CRs for many years in other parts of the world, especially Europe.  But in the U.S., load legs continue to be a bit of a novelty and are found only on a handful of (mostly high-end) RF-only CRs.  The feature employs an adjustable metal bar that extends vertically from the CR base to the floor of a vehicle to help manage crash force (see photo, left).

Read More from “Ask an Engineer: How Do Load Legs Improve CR Performance?”

NHTSA Clarifies 15-Passenger Van Regulations

On August 10, a full-size, 2010 GMC Savana van carrying school-aged children on a field trip in New Hampshire left the highway and struck a tree head on. Although the crash was serious, only one of the 13 passengers was seriously injured. “It appears seat belts saved a lot of lives today,” one state trooper told the a regional news affiliate while on-site at the crash. “These children—most or all—were wearing seat belts.”

Read More from “NHTSA Clarifies 15-Passenger Van Regulations”

Tips for Reading Vehicle Manuals

Certain aspects of vehicle manuals differentiate them from CR manuals. For instance, vehicle manuals must cover topics ranging far beyond CPS, and CPS-related topics appear in multiple sections of a vehicle manual. Therefore, when reading vehicle manuals—or instructing others to read them—it helps to understand the following: Read More from “Tips for Reading Vehicle Manuals”

Ask an Engineer: Can CRs Be Made in a Variety of Colors?

Sure! You can have any color car seat you want, as long as it’s black!

This guest article continues SRN’s “Ask an Engineer” series with Dave Sander, CPST-I and engineer (formerly with Evenflo). This series gives an insider view of how CR engineers develop and design CRs, as well as new insights into CR functionality.

Boosters in bright colors have been on the market for a while, but have you ever wondered why CRs with harnesses don’t come in a variety of colors? I’m talking about the plastic shells, not the pads. As you might have noticed, that plastic is nearly always black, white, or a shade of gray, sort of like what Henry Ford famously said about his Model Ts, paraphrased above.  And there’s a reason for that!

Read More from “Ask an Engineer: Can CRs Be Made in a Variety of Colors?”

Ask an Engineer: Are Differences Among Webbing Types Important?

The following guest article was inspired by an enlightening conversation between SRN editor Denise Donaldson and Dave Sander, CPST-I and engineer (formerly with Evenflo, but employed elsewhere at the time this article was written).

Have you ever given close attention to the webbing used for car seat harnesses, LATCH straps, or vehicle seat belts? If so, you may have noticed that some are wider or feel thicker, smoother, or rougher than others. You may have also noticed that some have stripes (actually called panels), and that those panels vary in appearance and number.

Read More from “Ask an Engineer: Are Differences Among Webbing Types Important?”

Avoid the Unintended Consequences of CR Cleanliness

In 2014, the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) studied how germ types and levels in cars compared to those in people’s homes.  While they found plenty of germs in people’s vehicles, it was in car seats that the results really stood out. Researchers found that, on average, every square centimeter of a car seat contained at least 100 bacteria and fungi—twice as many as on a toilet seat.

Naturally, this report was widely circulated in the media that year, and people were understandably grossed out.  It is certainly a reminder for CPSTs to stock their tool kit with hand sanitizer and use it routinely while working in cars.

Read More from “Avoid the Unintended Consequences of CR Cleanliness”

Updated Study on RF vs. FF Effectiveness

Published: SRN November/December, 2017. Updates will be posted here as they become available.

Update: August 31, 2018. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has revised their policy on child passenger safety.

As anticipated, the journal Injury Prevention in November published a new study by University of Virginia and other researchers titled “Rear-facing versus forward-facing child restraints: an updated assessment.”  This reexamination of field data was spurred by recent concerns about the accuracy of an earlier study by Henary, et al. (See SRN’s July/August and Sept/Oct 2017 issues.) That 2007 study strongly favored the safety benefits of riding rear facing (and supported subsequent policy updates by the AAP and NHTSA). The new study could not confirm the earlier study’s findings, nor did it result in new, statistically significant outcomes.
Read More from “Updated Study on RF vs. FF Effectiveness”

1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 18