Child
Safety Seats Get Safer
The
newest breed of seating systems keeps kid passengers more secure
and makes installation a snap
By
Jayne O'Donnell
http://www.clubmom.com
For
a new mom with just one infant, I take more than my share of child
safety seats in and out of cars. That's because I test drive at
least one new car or truck every week, and little Cate almost always
comes along for the ride.
So
it stands to reason that I'm excited about the new child seating
system known as "LATCH" (short for Lower Anchors and Tethers for
Children). LATCH has two components: a top-tether anchor for use
with forward-facing seats and easy-lock lower anchor points for
use with all child safety seats. LATCH is a blessing for anyone
who's ever struggled with car seat belts to install a child safety
seat. (And if you're really getting the child seat snug enough,
you're doing some wrestling.) This new system eliminates the need
to even touch the car's belts when you're putting in a child seat.
The lower anchor portion of the LATCH system will be required in
all new cars, minivans, and light trucks beginning September 1,
2002. But it has already shown up in many 2001 cars and trucks,
including the Ford Escape sport-utility vehicle, General Motors'
minivans, the Nissan Frontier pickup truck, the Infiniti G20 sedan,
and Chrysler's redesigned minivans.
How
LATCH Works
In vehicles equipped with lower anchors, safety seat anchors are
tucked away in the space where the seat back meets the seat bottom
(where the seat belts come out). New child seats—currently available
from Fisher-Price and Cosco, and soon to be out from Britax—have
special belts or hard attachment points with hooks that connect
to the anchors. Once the seat is hooked in, you simply tighten the
child-seat belts according to directions and you should be ready
to roll with a seat that's sure to be properly secured. If you have
an older car, the new child seats can also be installed via the
regular seat belts. By September 2002, all child safety seats will
also have to have two lower attachments that connect to a vehicle's
LATCH anchorage points.
Even
if your vehicle isn't equipped with the lower anchor, car seat tether
straps attached to anchor tether points in the vehicle can improve
child-seat security. As of September 1, 2000, all new cars, minivans,
and trucks were required to have anchors for use with child-seat
tether straps. These anchors are often found on the shelf behind
the back seat of a car, or on the seat back or floor of a van or
SUV. When attached to the tether strap found on most new child seats,
these anchors help reduce head injury to children by decreasing
the distance your child's head moves forward in a crash. Older-model
cars can be retrofitted with tether anchor attachments, so contact
your dealer. (Some older safety seats can also be fitted with the
tether, so contact the manufacturer.)
Room
for Improvement
Alas, nothing is ever truly easy when it comes to protecting kids
in cars. I have two nits about the new LATCH system. First, because
the government requires automakers to have the lower anchors in
two rear seating positions, you usually get them in the seats next
to the doors and not the safest center seat. Phil Haseltine, president
of the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety and chairman of the
advisory panel that recommended the system, says that's because
many rear seats aren't big enough to accommodate two full-size child
seats right next to each other. (In that case, maybe a third center-seat
should be mandatory!) However, the top tether anchors are required
in three positions.
Second
complaint: On most cars I've tested with LATCH, it's much easier
to hook the seats in than to unhook them. This should be less of
a problem when child-seat makers begin selling special LATCH seats
with hard lower attachment points instead of standard seats with
LATCH mini-belts. Then again, most people won't be taking their
child safety seats in and out of cars as often as I do.
ClubMom's
AutoPro, Jayne O'Donnell, is a Washington, D.C.-based reporter (and
new mom!) whose automotive expertise and investigative reporting
skills have helped break some of the biggest auto-safety stories
of the past several years.
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© 1999-2005 ClubMom,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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