OT: When your infant car seat is in a accident

[WAHMto5]

Soo glad to hear that you are both o.k. I am soo glad you posted this. I am a former Police Officer (DH is a current one) and sooo many people do not realize this about their car seats. Thanks!!

 

[SaraMc]

Kinda hit most of the criteria? You DEFINITELY have the criteria. If they are repairing your car, please please make sure all the seatbelts get replaced.

Yes that was discussed as well, they are still determining if they can fix it. We may just get a new car out of this.. Which is a shame because I loved my car..

 

[jjoobrien]

I was in a fender bender when dd was 11 weeks old. For safety (although I was certain she was ok), I took dd to her peditrician to check everything out (well, then too, she had MAJOR surgery when she was 6 weeks old). ANYWAY, another driver hit me. We all make driving mistakes, BUT I was irritated that her insurance company was NOT replacing my seat without a fight and the driver was not helping with the issue. Our peditrician told us to ALWAYS replace the car seat even if it is a minor accident because with seats like that you can't check internally what is going on and it is always better safe than sorry. Our peditrician even wrote a letter to this effect to the lady's insurance company. I eventially had to get my insurance company involved and they had to threaten the driver's insurance carrier that they would sue for not replacing our car seat. There is some legal code section out there that states the insurace should replace personal property. My insurance company found the code section and wrote this other company a letter to this affect, attaching my doctor's letter with it. Had a call within minutes to replace that seat! According to my insurance company lady, ALL insurance companies are aware of this but they like to hide it so they don't have to pay out extra money.
I'm sorry but you don't mess with the safety of a child. That's just wrong!

 

[rt2dz]

I just wanted to add that there is a lot of pro-replacement on car seats for the most minor accidents research/articles done BY THE INSURIANCE COMPANIES. Insuriance companies are the ones who really do a lot of pushing/lobbying for car safety laws (speed limits, drinking, seatbelts, etc) because it actually means they have less to pay and saves them money. It was really these articles that helped me get my DS's seat replaced. I told them I wanted it replaced with the exact seat I had (as it was the safest seat for my vehicle at the time). As long as you stand firm, it will eventually happen. I actually had to go buy the seat and then make them pay retro costs because I wasn't going to wait until they gave me the money to get the seat. That sucker was outta there that night!

 

[wrldpossibility]

I'm so glad everyone is alright. I'm an EMT, I just want to remind everyone that this is the same reason why it is illegal in most states to resell used car seats. Don't buy used ones at garage sales, etc! You cannot know for certain that they have not been in a collision (and often cannot tell if the shell is compromised by looking at it).

Even when passing them down among family and friends (when you know the history of the seat), look at the expiration date as others have said. They are only meant to be used for 5 years. I have seen how amazing infant seats can be (as has the OP), but I have also seen how useless old or damaged ones are in a collision.

 

[all4fun]

Dina,

You might want to check with the manufacturer of your car seat, but more recent articles that I've seen actually say that you don't necessarily have to replace a car seat after a minor crash. I'm sure there is more information out there, but here's information from one article I found on parenting.com:

When Your Car Seat's Been In a Crash
What to do if your infant seat has been in an accident
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the editors of Babytalk
One of the cardinal rules about car seats has always been to replace a model that's been in a crash. Now, thanks to the constantly improving quality of today's seats, that has changed. Recent studies have shown that child safety seats can withstand the impact of a minor crash without affecting their future performance, says National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesperson Eric Bolton. How can you tell if your crash was minor? It must meet all the following criteria:


You were able to drive your car away from the scene of the crash.

The vehicle door closest to the child safety seat was not damaged.

There were no injuries to any of the occupants of your vehicle.

The vehicle's air bags did not deploy.

There is no visible damage to the car safety seat itself.

If you're still unsure, take your car seat to an authorized inspection station for free advice. (Find one near you at nhtsa.gov.) Need to replace a damaged car seat? Talk to your insurance agent; some policies will cover the cost of a replacement seat.

Here's a link to the NHTSA's site "Child Restraint Re-use after Minor Crashes" As the pp said, it must meet ALL of the criteria to be considered "minor".

I actually had a small fender bender where my car bumper simply scraped another car's bumper. My ds was not in the car. IMO it wasn't enough to justify replacing the seat. There is a lot less stress on a seat when there is no child in it and like the pp who mentioned she was in a similar accident I barely even felt like I bumped into anything. The accident met all of the above criteria.

And about disposing of old or wrecked car seats, I have read the best thing to do is either donate to a car safety tech to use as a demonstration seat, or take the straps and cover off, cut straps, you can resell/pass on the cover if it's in good condition, and either spray paint the car seat shell, with "do not use" or take your frustrations out on it with a big sledge hammer. If it's whole, put it in a black plastic bag before sitting it by the garbage so someone doesn't try to reuse it anyway.

To the OP. Glad everyone was ok. That must have been frightening for you all. I hope everyone is back to "normal" soon and you don't have any problems getting your seats replaced!

hth.

 

[lkjasd]

the side of her car scraped my bumper-- there's damage in the bumper but there wasn't really a collision-- I don't think she even realized she hit me at first- I didn't feel a thing in terms of impact--

Dina, you don't need to replace your seat based on this description of your accidnet. As another poster stated, there can be unseen cracks/weak points in a seat due to a colision. You did not have a "collision" jwhere any amount of energy was imparted to your seat. Don't worry about it.

To the others who had more serious collisons. As others have said, replace the seats AND the belts.

(from an ex crash test engineer)

 

[Shannon G]

What they fail to mention is that a minor crash is one there is a minor bump to the bumpers of the cars involved and is under 5 miles per hour. In the classes I took to be certified (a 16 hour course) we were told that if the impact is enough to lock up your seat belt, your child will be safer if you replace the seat.

Even with no visible damage the shell structure could be damage or weakened. The seat should be checked by a cert. safety seat installer who is trained to look for weakeing in the seats.

In the end you are better getting a new seat.

Also if you live in an area where you have hot summers and very cold winters you should replace your car seat every 5 years. They can get fatiuged from the heat and cold and may not work properly after the 5 year period.

Lori

I realize that they were referring to VERY minor crashes - I was not posting this is response to the OP (who most definitely should get a new car seat) but rather to the PP who mentioned the scrape in the parking lot, in which they didn't think the other driver was even aware at first that they had hit them - if it was THAT minor, I don't think the seat needs to be replaced.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

glad to hear you are all fine.

 

[grlpwrd]

Dina, you don't need to replace your seat based on this description of your accidnet. As another poster stated, there can be unseen cracks/weak points in a seat due to a colision. You did not have a "collision" jwhere any amount of energy was imparted to your seat. Don't worry about it.

To the others who had more serious collisons. As others have said, replace the seats AND the belts.

(from an ex crash test engineer)

Replace the belts? Now that is something I have not heard of.

I'm going to look into this... Thank you.

 

[lkjasd]

Replace the belts? Now that is something I have not heard of.

I'm going to look into this... Thank you.

Yes, if the crash is strong enough, you may have pretensioners that were "fired" (newer model cars) or you may have bent various mechanisms inside the belt or stretched the belts (that would be way OT for me to get into). There are A LOT of factors that can determine whether they need replaced or not but it is something to be aware of that some (many?) repair shops may not do (especially if a Mom and Pop type place).

 

[SaraMc]

I saw my car today, it looks diffrent that what I remember, the company that has the car took our old seat and destroyed it for us and the smunched up stroller that went with it.

The car will be written off, so I dont need to worry about the seat belts, they will be brandnew with my brandnew car that we will be getting.

The new seat is in the rental right now and life is getting back to normal, got to say it was weird driving by where the accident happened. My neck is better, DH is still a bit stiff.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes