A Swedish rear facing car seat saves another life
Sunday was a very tragic day in Sweden. A horrible accident took place in the north of Sweden. It took the life of a mother, father and their 5-year old daughter. A 10-year girl is fighting for her life after being critically injured. The car somehow drove over to the opposite side of the road at 90 km/h (55 mph) and collided with a bus head on. The accident left the car unrecognizable, as seen in the photo above, and a dozen injured people on the bus.
The media attention was enormous all over the country. Television, radio and newspapers all had extensive reports. Crisis center was quickly set up for family, friends, etc. While we do have adults dying in traffic, still at a very low rate, it’s extremely rare to have a 5-year old dying in a car accident in Sweden. By using our high weight rear facing car seats to keep our children rear facing mostly past age of 4, and then in a high back booster, our fatality rate in car accidents for age 0-6 years is basically zero.
This accident was very tragic but something amazing happened. One little girl was unharmed. A 1-year old girl survived this horrible crash thanks to her rear facing car seat. She was pulled out of the car unharmed, only with minor scratches. The girl was sitting rear facing in the front seat, airbag deactivated, and survived the crash in her rear facing car seat which according to unconfirmed reports was a Britax Hi-Way. Take a look at the car in the photo above and once again witness the incredible safety of a rear facing car seat.
Many believe the front seat is not a safe place for a young child. It’s actually just as safe, or safer, than the rear when looking at all the factors as discussed here. Airbag must of course be deactivated. We have been rear facing children in Sweden since 1965 and during all these years we have learned a lot.
One thing which is rarely surprising to the car seat professionals is the amazing safety of a rear facing car seat. A head on frontal collision at 90 km/h (55 mph) is not really survivable but a Swedish rear facing car seat provide a baby or a toddler with a great chance of surviving even the most horrible accident.
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.
Are car seats in front seat safe?
Front seat of a car is sometimes called "suicide seat", "death trap" and "child killer" by parents on various internet forums. The Swedes, widely recognized as being 30 years ahead of other countries in car seat safety, use the front seat extensively with airbag deactivated and have an unbelievable safety record for children. What’s fact and what’s fiction? Is the front seat safe?
We often say that a child is as safe in the front seat as in the rear seat as long as airbag is deactivated. In reality, a child is likely even safer in the front seat when considering all the various factors.
Contrary to popular opinion, the front seat is an excellent place for a child as long as airbag is deactivated with key or switch. Trusting deactivation with a sensor, except perhaps the Mercedes solution, is something we don’t feel so comfortable about. Can you trust deactivation with key or switch? Absolutely! Some of the finest and most safety conscious car brands in the world use this solution andhave done so safely for many years.
What makes front seat such a safe and practical place for a rear facing child as long as airbag is deactivated? A few reasons below:
- Optimized front seat: Cars are optimized for safety in front seat. We don’t know how and when a crash will take place but we do know there will always be someone in a front seat
- Strength of dashboard: Dashboard, or what’s on the inside, is the strongest point in a car. Frontal collisions account for about 75% of all accidents, protection is therefore very important and a high priority.
- Leg space for child: Parents are often (unnecessary) concerned about leg space for their child. It’s a common car seat myth that children are uncomfortable or unsafe if legs are bent. Parents therefore often turn children around forward facing way too early. Using the front seat is practical and increases leg space for a child while also leaving space in the back for a passenger. We know for a fact rear facing is 500% safer than forward facing, parents using front seat often keep their child rear facing an additional year which makes a huge difference in safety.
- Less distractions: Research has shown keeping a child in front seat is less distractive than rear seat. Children are calmer, especially smaller babies, since they can see mom/dad. It’s easy to communicate with a child in the front seat. Parents can also see their child in peripheral vision and focus on the road. Is your child screaming when alone in back seat? Using front seat next to mommy/daddy is likely to work much better.
- Flexible placement: Larger families, three or more young children, often struggle to find good and safe seating arrangements for their kids. Using front seat means children are more likely to sit properly restrained.
- Leg space for parents: Long rear facing time is great but not if parents are cramped in front seat or it’s unusable. There are some rear facing seats in other countries which have taller seat shells and slightly higher weight limit (nothing like 25 kg. or 55 lbs though) but these seats often require an enormous amount of space. One example is the US seat Radian which has a taller seat shell than other seats but often needs so much space it makes front seat unusable. Being able to use front seat is practical and provide good leg space for child in front and also for a person in the back.
Research has shown ages ago that front seat is an excellent place for a child. Safety conscious brands such as Volvo also state very clearly that front seat is just as safe as the rear seat for car seats. Research and theory is one thing, how does rear facing in front seat work in real life? It works amazingly well.
Swedish fatality rates for children in traffic accidents aged 0-6 years are close to zero each year largely thanks to keeping children rear facing until age 4 or longer. Sweden started keeping children rear facing in 1965, a large percentage of Swedish children today sit rear facing in the front seat with airbag deactivated with fantastic results.
Using the front seat for a rear facing child is practical and very safe, this has been shown by research and real life experiences. Please remember to always deactivate airbag with key, switch or service center! Next time someone tells you front seat is "dangerous" you know it’s just fiction:-)
Enjoy your weekend!
Rear facing in real life
Many parents wonder how the Swedes keep their kids rear facing until age 4 or longer. How does a parent fit one, two, or three rear facing seats in the rear and still have room left in front? Is a large car necessary or will a mid size, or small car, work as well?
The Swedish rear facing seats are unique since they have tall seat shells but still don’t need much room. A regular mid size car will keep a toddler or two rear facing in he back seat until age 4 or longer. Space in the front will still be fine. A good example are the photos below with a DuoLogic and a Britax Hi-Way in a normal VW Golf, a regular mid size car.
This is surprising to most parents, a common myth told by organizations who hate rear facing is that a rear facing seat in the rear means no space left in the front regardless of car. Just yesterday a worried parent emailed asking about using DuoLogic in a Volkswagen Passat, a large family car. She had just spoken to a very well known organization who told her "there is no way it will fit".
Not only will it fit well in a Passat, there is lots of room in the front seat. DuoLogic and the compact Britax Hi-Way will also fit nicely in much smaller cars, such as a VW Golf. This car is one of the most common in the world, two Swedish rear facing seats in the rear seat with plenty of room in the front is no problem (see photos above, click for larger size).
These incorrect statements by organisations, who know next to nothing about rear facing seats, are of course confusing for parents. Leg space in front seat is an important consideration when choosing a car seat since we want the whole family to be comfortable in the car. If you have questions about how rear facing Swedish car seats fit your car please email us at info@carseat.se and we’ll help you out.
Britax Two-Way saves a life!
Collisions are terrible and scary but does occur more often than we like. The whole point with using a Swedish rear facing car seat is to keep our children safe in case of an accident. Hearing of unharmed kids in severe collisions is always a relief. Phoebe uses a Britax Two-Way for her son and was hit at high speed. She was kind to include details of her crash and photos of the car which was totally destroyed. Only person not injured in the crash was her son in his Britax Two-Way:
Hi Håkan
Were kids safe in cars 40 years ago?
While talking to other parents about car seat safety one statement often come up: “When I was a child me and my sister were sleeping in the back seat without car seat or seat belt and that worked fine”. Is this true? Do we really need car seats? Lets take a closer look at just how safe kids were in 1970.
As I’ve mentioned before, Swedes are boring effective which mean we’re good at keeping track of accidents and statistics. Amazingly, we started using rear facing car seats in 1965. In 1970 it was still a new thing and few were using car seats or even seat belts. We’ve come along way since then and today most parents keep children rear facing to age 4 due to the huge safety benefits. Are we saving lives by using rear facing car seats? Y E S!! We’re saving many lives each year.
In 1970 58 children died between ages 0-6 years in Sweden. Fast forward to 2007 or 2008 and things look a different. During both 2007 and 2008 only 2 children died each year in traffic accidents in age 0-6 in Sweden. Cars are much safer today but main difference is that children today sit in rear facing car seats with easy rear facing to age 4 or longer. Difference between 1970 and 2008 is 56 lives saved. Is that a lot? I think so but it’s of course a subjective opinion. The quote “A parent should never have to bury their own child” is something which I think we all agree with. (Number refers to all traffic accideents, not only kids in cars. A toddler being run over on the sidewalk is also included in the fatality and injury stats)
We often look at fatalities but not at serious injuries in children. In 1970 there were 283 seriously injured children in traffic accidents in Sweden. In 2007 there were 41 seriously injured kids in age 0-6 years. Number for 2008 was 54. Great progress here as well. We still have work to do but parents are doing a great job.
What happens in a crash at the very low speed of 30 km/h (19 mph) wearing no seat belts? Please look at the clip below and note what object is thrown through the front window. Don’t forget, colliding at 30 km/h is the same force as dropping your child head first into the ground from a 3rd floor balcony.
Where are the chest clips?
A common question by parents is why Swedish rear facing car seats lack chest clips. Aren’t chest slips necessary? Are seats without chest clips secure and safe?
Swedish car seats are certified according the the European standard ECE R44 which is fairly strong, a bit stricter than the US standard FVMSS 213 to compare with something. The European standard has no chest clips on purpose, it’s a safety feature. The standard says one must be able to unbuckle a car seat with one hand in case of an emergency.
A chest clip is a pre-crash positioner. It’s function is to hold harness in the right place before the accident. It’s completely normal for a chest clip to break during a collision. A simplified reason why chest clips exist is because many parents don’t tighten the harness properly. It’s usually too loose which affect safety negatively in a collision.
Swedish car seats often have harness placed more narrow across the shoulders which means no chest clips are necessary (or allowed). Can a chest clip be added to a Swedish rear facing seat? There are third party chest clips available but one should always be careful with adding accessories which are not included with the car seat. Please make sure it’s appropriate for your type of seat before adding a chest clip.
Win a Swedish rear facing car seat!
There are many people around the world who work hard to spread the enormous benefits of rear facing car seats. One of those is Helena who run the popular site Rearfacing.co.uk which has helped tens of thousands of parents in UK learn about rear facing. UK is like most other countries 30 years behind in car seat safety but Helena is changing attitudes quickly. I believe some of the manufacturers who push forward facing for 9-12 month old kids refer to her as a “pain in the a**” which I think is a huge compliment;-)
Helena is right now doing a competition where you can win a rear facing Swedish car seat donated by www.CarSeat.se. Go to rearfacing.co.uk and answer the question “How many times safer is a rear facing car seat in a frontal collision?”. If you don’t know the answer it can easily be found on this site or over at rearfacing.co.uk.
All entries need to be submitted by December 1 2009. Shortly thereafter a rear facing Swedish car seat of your choice could be delivered to your door! We would love for you to get the word out even more about rear facing car seats so we have created a poster promoting this competition. Please download it here and help us by distributing it anywhere you can.
Thank you!
Britax new colors are (almost) here!
Britax new colors are almost here (see slideshow below or external gallery by clicking here). Not all companies are great at timing deliveries, especially new colors, but Britax are as usual reliable. Select models and colors are being delivered this week. New colors are similar to previous lineup with no big changes. Color “Claire” is now gone and has been substituted by “Florian” which I think will be a popular color. “Claire” was nice but perhaps a bit too extreme with the brown colors. “Florian” is more discreet and will fit nicely in most cars.
Where are the pink and girly colors? This a common questions by parents. Swedes are quite boring practical, the darker colors work well with the long winters and muddy shoes….. Pink is not a common request but Britax has introduced a nice pink color this year, “Bella”, which will be available for the infant seat Baby-Safe and also the excellent high back boosters Kid Plus and Kid Fix. Pink stands for a small part of overall sales so it’s understandable it’s not available for all seats.
New for this year is harness holders on side of seat which will keep harness out of the way when kids climb into the car seat. 2010 catalog from Britax is also nothing but spectacular with nice appealing layout, awesome photos, and high quality paper. Nicely done!
Britax Multi Tech saves a life!
A large number of parents daily send emails to www.CarSeat.se with all sorts of great questions about rear facing and the Swedish car seats. The email below is a little different (and scary) since it involves a terrible crash. Many thanks to A-L in Finland for the actual photo of the crashed car and for getting the story from the mother:
The accident took place in Finland November 2008, on Fathers Day. Mother and daughter were on their way to grandma in their Nissan Primera Hatchback -05. Daughter was 9 months old and sat rear facing in the back seat in her Britax Multi Tech which was only a month or two old.
Mother was in the early stages of a pregnancy and constantly felt exhausted. After a while she was so tired she had to stop and walk around for a while before continuing to drive. Mother then continued driving but unfortunately fell asleep at the wheel shortly thereafter……
Her car crossed the middle lane at 50 MPH (80 km/h), continued across lane going in opposite direction, hit a ditch on side of road and then hit a large pile of timber. Her car then flipped four times.
All windows shattered and there was glass everywhere. Trunk of the car popped open, the stroller was found in the woods. Airbag deployed which meant mother remained protected by airbag and seat belt. Injuries to the mother consisted luckily only of scrapes from all the broken glass.
Daughter, who had been asleep in her Multi Tech was perfectly fine except for a few scrapes from all the broken glass. Mother made it out of the car by herself but could not reach her daughter since doors were impossible to open. Daughters car seat looked like nothing happened. It hadn’t moved an inch and support leg was just were it was supposed to be. Everything was working perfectly when she was lifted out of the car.
Firemen and ambulance staff scene were impressed: “If she hadn’t had such a great car seat she never would have made it. It’s one of the best car seats we’ve seen, we especially like the wings on the head support”.
The mother had purchased her Britax Multi Tech on “gut feeling”. Salesperson had recommended a far cheaper car seat but she felt strongly about having a safe rear facing car eat with nice head support. Her new replacement seat after the accident was not surprisingly another Multi Tech.
Daughter in the accident has now become a big sister and everything is going well. Mother is planning on an additional Multi Tech when her youngest daughter is old enough.
Terrible accident with a great ending. Is Britax Multi Tech that much safer than other Swedish rear facing car seats? The answer is no. Multi Tech is a great seat with nice head support which keeps children rear facing longer than any other seat in the world but safety is equally great in other seats such as DuoLogic, Britax Hi-Way, Britax Two-Way, Maxi Cosi Mobi, and Izikid Isofix.
The important thing is for children to remain rear facing as long as possible, preferably to age 4or longer. The child above was 9 months old and sitting rear facing. What would have happened if she was sitting forward facing at this age? It’s very likely this terrible crash would have ended very badly for the daughter with death or serious injury as a result.
