New Child Seat Ratings Announced

By David Thomas
March 5, 2015
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a new rating system today for child-safety seats called “Ease of Use” ratings. As the name implies, the ratings will address car seats’ installation features, labeling, instructions and how well they secure the child.

Now, none of the ratings tell you how safe the seats are. The reasoning for this is that many car seats are equally safe under federal guidelines.

While these ratings should help parents find more user-friendly seats, there’s still a need for crash-test ratings on child seats. A 2005 pilot test by NHTSA failed to provide useable crash-test results, and there are no plans to try again.

Related
Ease of Use FAQ
Ease of Use Ratings for Infant Rear-Facing Seat
Ease of Use Ratings for Toddler Forward-Facing Seat
Ease of Use Ratings for Convertible Seat
Ease of Use Ratings for Child Booster Seat

Managing Editor
David Thomas

Former managing editor David Thomas has a thing for wagons and owns a 2010 Subaru Outback and a 2005 Volkswagen Passat wagon.

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