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!
