Released: January 23, 2007

Making sense of the car seat controversy

Source: Herb Weisbaum /MSNBC

When the most trusted name in consumer testing questions the effectiveness of child safety seats, parents pay attention. A story in the February issue of Consumer Reports — now withdrawn — said most of the top-selling brands of car seats “failed disastrously” in the magazine’s crash tests.

Consumer Reports “screwed up,” says Kathryn Kruger, Executive Director of the Washington State Safety Restraint Coalition. “They really upset people and created enormous confusion.”

Last week, Consumer Reports “withdrew” the story after learning the side-impact test that was supposed to be at 38 miles per hour actually simulated a crash of more than 70 mph. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration caught the mistake after reviewing the magazine’s data and redoing the tests.

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