Clek is recalling some models of their Olli and Ozzi backless booster seats because of a missing label. This is a compliance recall, so as long as you are following the directions for use in your owner's manual by placing the lap portion of the seat belt under both...
According to a news release by State Farm, nearly one-fifth of U.S. parents (guys, thats 20% of you) didnt use a child restraint at some point in their childs life. Why is that so alarming? A carseat or belt-positioning booster is a device that, when used properly,...
Research Indicates Younger Children Likely to Be Out of Position in Boosters A newly released study by Emma Sartin, PhD, MPH, CPST, highlights the need to keep less mature children in harnessed carseats versus moving them to a belt-positioning booster. While NHTSA...
” That high-back booster, even the tallest one on the market, will be outgrown by height before your child outgrows the need for a booster.” This is what irks me about this ‘campaign’. Seriously, high back boosters have been too short and haven’t gotten taller for a lot of years (The Turbo is the most popular, and after more than, what, 13 years, it’s not taller). Britax at least could stand by their highback only stance if they only sold Frontiers with 65″ height limits, but that’s not quite realistic. So how many parents are going to just ditch the highback thinking that a backless is unsafe? I hope none do! I also hope this silly meme comes and goes as fast as ‘rear to a year’ did for Graco (introduced well after the AAP recommended RF seats be made to 45lbs for 4 year olds in 2002)
Amen, Julie!
Great analysis … What is Britaxs ulterior motive? Britax have sold exactly this type of backless booster for decades. And thanks to them, the number of childhood deaths and injuries has reduced significantly.
Now they are telling us to bin the booster ! Is this a big corporation wanting us all to buy bigger, more complex, more inconvenient and more expensive new products?
The video is Britaxs own test in their own facility. Ive seen hundreds of truly independent crash test videos with backless boosters where the child is restrained properly; they are not scary like this. Are we sure Britax did not set this up to look bad?
Boosters are inexpensive, practical and simple products designed to provide convenient and straight forward installation. They ensure good vehicle seat belt positioning onto the child and are designed to conform to the most universally accepted global car seat regulations; including the UK.
There are other products on the market that offer different features that may exceed the statutory standards; we have used them with my own relatives. But this does not mean that backless boosters, which are a mainstay of child car safety worldwide, are suddenly dangerous and should be binned.
This campaign can only increase the number of journeys where children travel without any protection.
Shame on you Britax!
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Britax *has* done a great deal to advance child passenger safety throughout their history. Certainly having kids sit in high-back boosters does seem like it would reduce the risk of injury, but we don’t have any statistics telling us that. No one has funded a study on it here in the US and even if someone outside the US did a study on it, we couldn’t apply those stats here because the crash tests are done so differently.
I do wonder who set up their crash test since they used different dummies in each seat (marketers vs. techs). It’s like comparing apples to oranges; if they had used the same Q6 dummy in the backless booster as they did in the high-back booster, would it have been less scary of a video? I guess we should be happy they didn’t use any type of 10 yr old dummy because those are just plain horrid to watch, lol!
I maintain that backless boosters have a very real place in the child passenger safety world. They aren’t dangerous when used with appropriately sized and aged kids.
Consumer Reports did testing and the highbacks got good ratings, but low back always went down in safety. Soooo, made me nervous. We have highbacks that go to 63″ which is pretty good. I think in general every step down in a seat is a step down in safety. I know I’d be THRILLED if I could ride with foam surrounding me and headwings, bonus for rear-facing! But realistically, there is no way.
Carseat companies CAN do a better job of promoting highbacks. So many parents get a 3 or 4 YO a lowback, and some even have babyish themes! I guess the whole idea of using a lowback by choice makes no sense to me, provided the child has a high-back that fits AND it fits in the car.
Yep, yep, yep. Those “Cars” and Princess-themed backless boosters make me cringe because I don’t know any 8+ year olds that want to ride in those. Unfortunately, like Julie said, one of the most popular boosters, the TurboBooster, is so short that taking the back off is something that most parents have to do by the time their kids are about 8. Another thing a lot of parents don’t even realize with their high-back boosters is that the back actually raises up to grow with their child. You’d be amazed at how common a problem that is.
For when kids outgrow the high-back booster, Safety 1st really hit the nail on the head with the Incognito in designing it for big kids: it’s vehicle seat-colored and for 60-120 lbs. Perfect!
This nationwide campaign, supported with powerful crash test footage, urges parents to get rid of any booster cushion seats they might have and opt for highback boosters with head and side impact protection to ensure children are safe and secure on their travels this summer – and beyond.
Article: https://www.life360.com/blog/backless-booster-seats-unsafe/
I think this video from Which? is a better side impact view of a highback booster vs. a backless booster
Video: http://www.theguardian.com/money/video/2010/jun/18/crash-test-child-car-seats