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Originally Posted by CPS-I_Jeff  I given the option, I would buy that vehicle. There is a reason they no longer make vehicles with rear facing seats anymore. |
Typo
It seems you meant that you would *not* buy a vehicle with RF 3rd row.
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Originally Posted by eps The reason "they" no longer make cars with rear-facing seats is that the car manufacturers have all decided to sell us SUVs because they are cheap to produce and fashionable. |
Not to mention that fact that kids are required to use safety seats longer now (thank goodness: thousands of lives have been saved!) yet no carseat/
booster manufacturer allows installation on RF vehicle seats....
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- Is any SUV or Minivan safer than an Audi A6 or Volvo V70?
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Yes, it's possible, depending on the model years.
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- Is it safer to place the head and torso at the back of the car (forward facing SUV or Minvan) or the center of the car (rear facing)?
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In general we do wish every passenger could ride RF because it would be safer . . . but, correct use is still considered safest, so our hands are relatively tied until manufacturer's test seats with the bench RF: as it is now choosing to go against the manufacturer's recommendations basically equates to the child being a real life crash test dummy
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- Is it safer to absorb the energy of a front-end collision with ones chest against the seat belt or with ones back against the seat cushion?
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What we do know is that lives are currently saved every day & injury often totally avoided thanks to correct use. If we had the testing data or real crash data on this to accurately predict the risk of installing carseats on RF vehicle seats then we might have different answers. But, we don't. At this point all we can say is that it comes down to parental discretion.
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Lacking any accident statistics, it is very hard to believe that a rear-facing seat in a station wagon isn't considerably safer than a forward facing rear seat in a Minivan, SUV, or small hatchback.
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Actually, we do have enough data to say that the
cargo area is known to have higher injury rates because the cargo area is often a crush zone.
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Originally Posted by eps What legal standing that has is up to interpretation since these things predate widespread booster seat laws and laws are at the state level, not federal. I doubt there is any judicial precedent on the matter. |
Some states do have Proper Use clauses, which automatically make it illegal to install any child safety seat on RF vehicle seats. Beyond that we most likely would have to wait for NHTSA to require manufacturers to test child safety seats on RF vehicle seats in order for us to know more. NHTSA is still working on side impact crash testing regulations of child safety seats on
FF vehicle seats, so I doubt we'll see RF vehicle seat regulations anytime soon.
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From a safety point of view, if the seat belt is properly positioned, then it functions as a booster.
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This is regarding an item made by the car company & specifically designed for that vehicle, though.
At a seatcheck I would do everything possible to figure out how to keep the child safety seats in the traditional backseat, saving the rear RF bench only for those kids big enough to fit it without need of a child safety seat. In this way the safety of ALL would be more equalized (smaller kids already having the benefit of a harness which does distribute crash forces out over a broader area of the body, providing some side impact protection as well)
There are, of course, situations where a family needs a 7 passenger vehicle & cannot possibly afford a minivan or large SUV. If they can manage to get a 3rd row installed so that each child has their own seatbelt & that's the very best they can do, then that will have to be "good enough".
I myself am a single mom in college. TA'ing & volunteering to teach other low income families how to keep their kids safe doesn't leave me with enough $ for my own vehicle. I have been faced with this dilemma, but luckilly I also have 2 niche seats that allowed me to keep all the kids as safe as they possibly could be. I was thankful my friend was willing to help us out since the city bus wasn't working that day. I also don't live in a Proper Use clase state so my only worry was whether my educated guesses as to which child in which seat should go where were accurate. Even more lucky, no one crashed into us that day for me to find out I was inaccurate.
I have decline a ride with this person every other time they've offered. I put my child's safety above convenience, so we opt to ride the city bus instead (which is about 8 times less likely to crash in the 1st place). Or, when I have $ I call a taxicab & make sure the driver doesn't put it in gear before I'm done installing the seat, let alone before we're all buckled.