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NHTSA Will Write New Child Safety Seat Rules

February 9, 2007

Infant Seats • Hazards of Rent-A-Car Child Safety Seats • Feds Revise Child Safety Seat Ratings • Study Warns of Dangerous Chemicals in Child Car Seats • Consumer Reports Takes Blame for Infant Seat Test Error • Use of Booster Seats Increasing • NHTSA Will Write New Child Safety Seat Rules • Consumer Reports Admits Errors in Its Infant Car Seat Tests • Infant Fatalities Illustrate Car Seats' Shortcomings • Child Car Seats Not Up to the Challenge • Parents Still Clueless About Child Safety Seats • NHTSA Releases 2006 Child Safety Seat Ratings • Child Safety Seats Reduce Risk of Death in Crashes More Than Seat Belts Alone • Kids Getting Too Fat For Safety Seats, Study Finds • NHTSA Proposes New Child Safety Seat Rules • Children Not Using Safety Seats, NHTSA Study Finds --- • Consumer Complaints • Auto Safety News

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to issue new child safety seat regulations by the end of the year.

Federal regulators have not decided whether to require side-impact crash tests for child safety seats but NHTSA administrator Nicole Nason said those tests remain under consideration.

The safety of car seats jumped to the public's attention after Consumer Reports published, then retracted, a report that condemned most infant car seats for failing the magazine's side-impact crash tests.

The findings reported only two of 12 seats performed well in the tests. The magazine's publisher, Consumers Union, plans a review the now-discredited infant car seat tests.

Throughout the controversy, experts warned that the safest place for a child is in a properly restrained child seat. Even though just 5 percent of children are unrestrained while riding in a vehicle, they account for 30 percent of all fatalities.

The LATCH system that is used to hold a child seat in a vehicle has been required by Congress since 2002. But a December study by NHTSA showed that 40 percent of parents are still using seat belts to restrain children, in part because they do not understand the LATCH system.

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