Two car seats meet government requirements but struggle by other measures.
Millions of drivers are on the road, and many of them have young kids. Of course, everyone has to consider car safety, but people with babies have a bit more to consider. This is especially the case as they must have special seating for the kids. However, this goes further than just finding cheap car seats, and now experts are sounding the alarm on two of the most popular options.
Car safety for kids is more than just finding cheap seats
Car safety is important for parents when they’re out shopping for child seats. After all, not only do states require them for kids under a certain age and size, but they offer a great deal of protection when children aren’t big enough for seatbelts. However, finding cheap car seats isn’t enough. Instead, the process of buying one requires research into ratings.
According to WFMY News 2, parents should think twice about two leading options due to their recent ratings from Consumer Reports. First, there’s the Diono LiteClik30 XT infant car seat. It meets federal car safety regulations, and there are also no reported incidents with the seat. However, it didn’t fare too well in Consumer Reports’ latest crash tests. For context, the government tests child seats with 30 mph speed, whereas CR uses cars going five miles faster. The tests found that there were a bit of structural integrity issues with the Diono seat.
The other child seat that people concerned with car safety should think twice about is the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 Urban Mobility baseless infant seat. It’s the same story with this seat. It meets the government’s requirements but faltered a bit when it came to Consumer Reports. A representative from CR said, “If a child’s car seat shows significant damage after one test impact like Diono and Peg Perego did, that’s a major concern.”
Both companies have since released statements about their level of child car seat safety. Diono said, “We committed to the safety of all child passengers and that it was thoroughly investigating the questions raised by CR’s testing.” Peg Perego’s statement read, “Additional tests conducted using CR’s protocol did not reveal any structural breakages or raise any concerns about the product’s integrity.”
