So, how many adults does it take to install a child safety seat, and how tightly should they install it? Well, if you've been to some child seat check events you might deduce that it takes a large number of strong fire fighters jamming, pulling and heaving in such a way as to virtually weld the apparatus to the car causing the entire vehicle to shake when the seat is tested for tightness. Is that what it takes? Is that the correct method? Hard to say. Read on. Those of us who have been at this (child passenger safety education) for a while were originally taught to test the child seat for proper installation by pulling on it at the spot where the seatbelt passes through the child seat (the belt path). If the seat didn't move more than an inch side-to-side or forward to back then it was considered a safe installation. It still is. Now, in most cases, a rear facing seat will flip up and down even when installed correctly, but that's a discussion I'll save for another time.
So, if the 1-inch rule is still in effect, what's the issue? Well, many of the long-serving technicians and instructors among us never really signed on to that 1-inch thing. We were all trained to put out knees in those seats and shove 'em as tightly into the vehicle as we could. Lot's of parents would agree. However, that's not how we teach new technicians. We teach them that the proper installation method is to simply press the child seat onto the vehicle seat with one hand and pull the belt (or LATCH connector) firmly. If the result fits the 1-inch rule then all is well.
This new method of instruction is considered appropriate for two reasons. First of all, the primary goal of child passenger safety technicians is to be educators, and not seat installers. We want parents and caregivers to leave an event with information about how to safely secure their entire family and the confidence to do it properly themselves. We do not want the process to appear so daunting that they'll never consider themselves qualified to do it on their own.
The second reason to consider the 1-inch rule to be sufficient is the actual physical dynamics of the crash. If you look at a crash test video with a child seat installed properly, you'll see that it separates from the vehicle seat as the harnesses (seatbelt or LATCH) holding it to the vehicle stretch with the crash. Yup, a perfectly installed child seat will move right off of the vehicle seat. So, that shelf liner that you used to make that child seat seem tight doesn't do anything at all in the actual crash.
So, I guess that convinces everyone that we don't need to weld that child seat to the car, right? Well, not so fast. New research and crash testing is demonstrating the possibility that the greatest reduction in crash forces transfered to the child is achieved by attaching the child more directly to the vehicle. In these crash tests, dummies restrained "correctly" endured three times the crash forces experienced by dummies attached directly to the vehicle with steel bands. Today's cars are designed to absorb the crash forces and direct them away from the occupants as much as possible. The assumption is that the crash dummies attached directly to the vehicle were more efficiently riding down the crash with the vehicle. Obviously, much more testing and research needs to be done.
Do I have you totally confused by now? Am I advocating tight makes right, or steady as you go? Well, neither, really. What's a mother to do? Here's what I would suggest:
1. Use a child safety seat all the time, and use it as best as you can. I'm still amazed about the crash reports I read where the child is ejected from the the vehicle or thrown about within it, and killed because there was no child seat being used. I've seen seats that experienced cracks and failures in crashes due to misuse, but they still ended up saving the child from death or serious injury. Some of these were even ejected from the vehicle. Use the seat.
2. Read the instructions. Yup, and read 'em both for the child seat and the vehicle. This goes for all of us technicians too. There's a great deal of good thought, testing and engineering going into these systems now. We'll get the greatest safety out of following the instructions and adapting to the technology changes.
3. There are two things to get tight to make it right. Many families work hard to get that seat secured in the vehicle tightly, but then leave Junior loose in their harness. That's probably the number one misuse that I see. Pull the harnesses tight. Junior won't mind, and if they do- tough.
4. Seek out the child passenger safety technicians in your town for assistance.
Crashes are violent and frightening events. Many of their effects are predictable and preventable, though. The injury prevention world is adapting and finding new ways of testing our vehicles and occupant protection systems. The safety rules that are true today or that were true a year ago, may not serve us as these systems progress. It's our job to be informed, keep an open mind and to adapt.
Be safe.
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