An interesting perspective on Car Seats

[redvlagrl]

The other night I was having dinner with one of the top forensic pathologists in this country. Unfortunately he has the job of seeing the aftermath of many fatal car crashes.

Anyway we were talking about car seats etc and he raised some interesting points.

He agreed that RFing is safer, HOWEVER he said that car seats in general and best for rear end collisions and he said they actually cause worse injuries in side on (!).

He thought the no snow suit thing was ridiculous.

Now, this is *not* my POV, but I just thought it was very interesting that someone who knows more about it than me (than most of us?) from a firsthand perspective has these opinions. He said he has seen many videos of actual crashes with people inside (not dummies) and has seen the damage that the seats do.

He also said that if you have an unrestrained kid/object in the back and you crash, that the front passengers will often get decapitated as the headrests break off, taking your head with it!

Lovely.

[alegna]

I don't believe the side impact crash would make a carseat MORE dangerous.  Just makes no sense.  And he doesn't understand how seats work at all if he thinks a snowsuit won't impact how a carseat works.

-Angela

[redvlagrl]

neither, but he said the car seat itself actually injures the child with side impacts!

[chickabiddy]

A forensic pathologist examines dead bodies, correct?  In a crash severe enough to be unsurvivable, I would expect multiple injuries, including possibly some caused by the carseat itself.  Properly used carseats save lives, but some crashes are unsurvivable, and they usually result in multiple and serious injuries.

[redvlagrl]

Haha, I hadn't thought of this. Great point! He specifically looks at brains, but gets to see the rest too.

[Prairiemother]

I  wonder what it is that causes the injuries - broken plastic?  some carseats have metal bars on the sides, I wonder whether that would make a difference.

[redvlagrl]

I think he said it was the plastic of the seat itself. Who knows. I'm just relaying what he said because I thought it was very interesting

[DahliaRW]

In any side impact crash where the plastic of the car seat was splintered in such a way that it caused injury  to the child, if the car seat were not there it would be the car itself (or car that is crashing into your car) that impacts the child.  The seat doesn't make a huge difference in those cases.

[sapphire_chan]

And how many kids does your friend NOT see because the side impact protection kept it from being a fatal crash?

[PlumLovinMom]

Good Point!  That gentleman doesn't see the ones that survive. Perhaps his experiences ARE unsurvivable accident scenarios--with or without a carseat.

[Eclipsepearl]

Who has the stats but isn't front-impact much, much more common? I would prefer to protect myself and family from what is most likely. 

Is he saying that side impact crashes are more likely to be fatal? I could believe that. There's car in front and back of you but just the door on the sides. When a car gets hit by the side, it's logical that the brunt will have more impact. A car seat wouldn't really make a difference. We are talking non-survivable crashes.

I still vote to protect everyone from the most likely, not the most fatal, type of crash. Like many of you pointed out, he doesn't see the ones who make it because they were properly restrained.  

[an_aurora]

Frontal and frontal-offset crashes comprise 70% of crashes; rear-end crashes account for 14% of crashes, and side-impact crashes occur 15% of the time.  

Frontal and side impact crashes are the most dangerous for the occupants, and these are the crashes in which RF is most beneficial.  

Rear-end crashes are the least common and are the least dangerous, generally occurring at slower speeds with less damage and injuries.

http://www.safecarguide.com/img/angle468NEW.gif

[Eclipsepearl]

Interesting and proves our point. This guy is sees a bigger proportion of the side-impact, deadly crashes where a car seat would have less influence on the outcome (my nice way of saying the car seat wouldn't have helped). 

About the snowsuits, my guess is that he's never seen one yet. Apparently they've found the snowsuit strapped in after the baby had been thrown. Anyone have any info on that subject?