Rear facing and side impact collisions
Many parents ask about side impact protection of Swedish rear facing car seats. All kinds of fancy slogans are used to promote side impact protection for different brands around the world. Especially for forward facing seats. Swedish children were first placed rear facing in 1965 and during all these years we've learned a thing or two of how to keep children safe in cars. Side impact collisions are thankfully not the most common but sadly the most deadly accidents.
If we look at all collisions we find that frontal collisions account for roughly 70%, side collisions for 25% and rear collisions the remaining 5%. This is why car safety is optimized for the front seat and why a child is as safe or safer in the front seat as long as airbag in passenger seat is deactivated. This fact is not what most parents have been taught, more about this can be found here.
Side impact protection has been greatly improved over the years, thanks to great work by car manufacturers, but collisions from the side are still our most deadly kind of accidents. The front of our cars can withstand horrific crashes while even low speed accidents from the side can be deadly. When looking at test results and crash videos one could easily believe that forward facing seats provide excellent side impact protection for our little ones. Things are unfortunately very different in real life due to "pre-impact breaking".
Pre-impact braking occur in a high percentage of accidents from the side and basically means that a driver hits the brakes just before impact. This makes a big difference in how our children's vulnerable head and neck area is protected.
In a typical side collision, head of a forward facing child will be thrown forward just before collision due to pre-impact breaking. This leads to poor protection despite deep "side wings" regardless if it's a harnessed or a high back booster seat. A rear facing child is far more fortunate. In an accident a rear facing child will be pushed further into the car seat just before collision, due to pre-impact breaking, leading to excellent protection for the weak neck and head area. As any doctor will say: "We can fix arms, legs and many other things. We can't fix head and neck".
We should focus mostly on the more common frontal collisions but keeping our children rear facing for a long time is also a great way to keep vulnerable head and neck area well protected in side impact collisions.
Excellent article – quick and to the point. It’s always bothered me how the manufacturers do side-impact testing with the car being hit static. It’s just too bad this info isn’t going to get to the majority of the US public.
Robert- via Twitter, it might actually get around a LOT!
Whoops, I misread, that should be Rodger
Very important point! This article explains very well why rear facing is the safest choice. We, as parents, should do everything we can to spread this as much as possible.
why would you break for side impact .. most of the time you wouldn't even see it comming ….
the is no doubt for frontal and rear impact rear facing is better ,,, but its simpley physics to show that moving the body mass further away from the seat means the seat is far more likley to twist out of position ….. try it yourselfs go out to you car and push the seat sideways were your child head is located ….
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I which i knew about the rear facing seat when my children were small!