Child Car Seats: Should You Replace Them After a Crash?

It goes without saying: kids are our most precious cargo. Many of you out there have little ones who are still car seat age, but some may be shocked to learn that most children under the age of 10 or 11, depending on size, should be using a child safety seat or booster seat. In the United States alone, this accounts for roughly 50 million kids, many of whom will be injured in a car crash because of improper safety precautions.

The need for a child safety apparatus is well known, yet an important debate still remains: when should you replace your child’s car seat? The answers may surprise you.

What the Experts Say

Citing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this law firm based in Kansas City that specializes in automotive-related incidents states that there may be no need to replace a safety seat after a minor crash. According to the NHTSA, for a crash to be considered minor, the following conditions must ALL be met:

• The vehicle can be driven away from the scene of the crash, unassisted
• The door nearest the car seat sustained no structural damage
• None of the passengers in the vehicle were injured
• The air bags did not deploy
• No visible damage is done to the car seat

Furthermore, the NHTSA recommends following the car seat manufacturer’s guidelines. It is important to note that the NHTSA has, in the past, recommended replacing a car seat after any collision, regardless of how minor—the organization has revised this recommendation in recent years, in part because of the tendency to buy used car seats, which are much more difficult to evaluate for safety. If in doubt, the age-old adage “Better safe than sorry” is always appropriate.

Proper Car Seat Usage

Of course, knowing when to replace your little tyke’s safety seat matters very little if you don’t take the proper precautions to protect them in the first place. Parents and caretakers must ensure that all the car seat manufacturer’s instructions are followed, in both the installation of the car seat, and the security of the child. It’s also vitally important to make sure you have the right type of seat for your little one. Missouri and Kansas laws regarding car seats, like most other areas of the country, are quite similar, and boil down to three key factors: age, weight, and height:

• Infants and toddlers should always be kept in a rear-facing seat. It’s generally regarded as best practice to keep children in a rear-facing seat for as long as possible, until they’ve outgrown them fully.
• Between the ages of 4-7, most kids are generally ready to move to a forward-facing seat with a safety harness.
• Children age 8 and above, who weigh less than 80 pounds and are under 4’9”, are usually considered ready for a belt-positioning booster seat in combination with the factory seat belt.
• Once the child is big enough that the seat belt lies snuggly across the lap and the shoulder belt hits below the neck/face area, additional safety equipment is no longer considered necessary.
• As it always has been, the back seat is the gold-standard safest option, for kids under 13.

Of Course, a Safe Car Doesn’t Hurt!

The McCarthy family of auto dealerships near Kansas City has been supplying vehicles that are top-rated for safety features to the good folks of the heartland for decades. As safety innovations from automakers are being updated year after year, your best bet for safety is a new vehicle. Visit any of our car dealerships in the Kansas City area for more information about our fleet of safe and amazing new car options.

Remember: Some Things Can’t Be Replaced

Here at McCarthy Collision Centers, we’re dedicated to getting your ride looking good, and restoring it to safe, road-worthy condition. We see people on some of their worst days, and we pride ourselves on unbending the fenders and giving your car a new life. Some damage we just can’t fix, but we can offer our clients information and resources to help make sure that the worst never happens.

Stay safe, Kansas City!