The Center for Disease Control reports that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for children in the United States. Car seats designed for babies and young children help prevent these tragedies, keeping our precious cargo safe from serious injuries in the unfortunate event of an automobile accident.
In some cases, however, manufacturing defects of car seats can cause those products to fail, often prompting massive recalls. Some of the most common car seat defects include the following:
- weak shells
- defective carry handles
- inadequate padding
- flammable materials
- base/shell separation
- weak construction
- sudden releases
- unanticipated rotation
- buckles or latches that are difficult to release
- poor or insufficient installation instructions
In 2018, 636 children aged 12 years old and younger died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, and more than 97,000 were injured.
In April 2018, certain Harmony Big Boost Deluxe booster seats were recalled due to the seat belt causing excessive force to be applied to the child’s chest during a crash. In 2014, Graco Children’s Products recalled nearly 6.1 million car seats after an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed numerous instances where the harness buckle was difficult or impossible for consumers to unlatch. As a part of that investigation, Graco agreed to pay a $3 million fine for being too slow to report complaints relating to car seat buckles becoming stuck or difficult to open. The company must also spend $7 million on measures to improve child seat safety, including better programs to register seat owners so that they may be notified of safety problems, as well as improving procedures to identify problems and speed up the recall process.
