The Safest Options
VEHICLES WITH NO REAR-
LESS THAN 40 LBS.
1. Put the child in a convertible car seat
facing forward. The harness MUST be in
the top slots and the harness MUST come
out of the slots AT or
ABOVE the child's
shoulders; the tops of the
child's ears should be below
the top of the seat shell.
2. Put the child in a forward-facing only
seat (or a combination seat). Use the five-
point harness until child is 40
lbs, then use as a belt-
positioning booster with car's
lap-shoulder belt.
MORE THAN 40 LBS.
1.Put the child in a high-
back belt-positioning
booster and use the car’s
lap/shoulder belt to
restrain them.
2.Put the child in a low-back belt-
positioning booster seat and use the car’s
lap/shoulder belt to
restrain them (only in
vehicles with high seat
backs or head restraints)
SEAT SHOULDER BELTS
(OR CHILDREN UNABLE TO SIT PROPERLY IN
A BELT-POSITIONING BOOSTER)
1.Tethered vest with low-back booster
from E-Z-On products. 1-800-323-6598
www.ezonpro.com
2.Safeguard Child Seat (to 65 lbs) and
Go (to 60 lbs, converts to booster)
www.safeguardseat.com
3. Britax Marathon, Boulevard and
Decathlon (to 65 lbs) and the Regent (to A Parent’s Guide to
80 lbs)
1-888-4BRITAX or www.britaxusa.com
st
4. Safety 1 /Alpha Elite Apex 65 (to 65
Shield
lbs, converts to booster). www.djgusa.com
5.Sunshine Kids Radian 65 and Radian
Booster
80. www.skjp.com
6.For long-term use, shoulder belts
Dangers
should be fitted into vehicle, or a different
vehicle with shoulder belts should be
bought. A lap only belt does not provide
adequate protection for any belted
individual.. Lap belts are safe, however,
for securing child safety seats.
WHAT EXPERTS SAY
Kathleen Weber (U of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute):
Shield boosters are no longer
considered appropriate crash protection
for children. Crash investigations have
documented ejections, excessive
excursions, and shield-contact injuries
in rollover, side, and frontal crashes,
resulting in severe head, spinal,
abdominal, and extremity injuries.
http://www.umtri.umich.edu
American Academy of Pediatrics:
Shield boosters are used with lap belts.
However, they do not provide enough
upper body protection to be
recommended. Shield boosters cannot be
used for children over 40 pounds. Children
less than 40 pounds should remain in a
convertible or forward-facing seat. Shield
boosters should only be used without their
shields as belt-positioning boosters. While
manufacturers may recommend use of
shield boosters at lower weights, children
less than 40 pounds are at risk of
ejection from the booster in the event
of a rollover crash.
http://www.aap.org
University of North Carolina
Highway Safety Research Center
Shield boosters are used with lap belts.
However, they do not provide enough
upper body protection to be
recommended for general use. Older
models of shield boosters listed weight
ranges as high as 65 pounds, but current
models of shield boosters cannot be
used for children over 40 pounds.
Current models of shield boosters can
be used without the shield for use as a
belt-positioning booster with a
lap/shoulder belt and should only be
used in this manner if at all possible.
While MANUFACTURERS may
recommend use of shield boosters at
lower weights, children under 40
pounds are at risk of ejection from
the booster in the event of a rollover
crash and should remain in a
convertible or other forward-facing
harness seat until 40 pounds.
http://www.hsrc.unc.edu
WHAT IT MEANS
The most important thing to understand
is that the only test these seats have to
pass is a frontal collision test. There
are no tests that show how it would
perform in a side impact, rear-impact or
rollover crash. This seat has been
responsible for head injuries (when a
child’s head hits the shield or vehicle
interior) neck/spinal cord injuries
(from being stretched when the head
is thrown forward too far) and
ejections (when the child is thrown
out of the seat). This seat is NOT
approved for airline use. Currently,
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard
(FMVSS) 213 (that regulates car seats)
only requires a static rollover test to be
performed with the CRS for aircraft
certification (put a dummy in the seat
and turn the seat upside down). These
don't pass - the dummy FALLS OUT!!!
Here are the problems with the shield
boosters:
1. These booster seats were designed
back when cars only had lap belts in back.
They were the only option for use after a
regular car seat was outgrown. That is no
longer the case. Better protection is now
offered in the form of belt-positioning
boosters.
2.They provide no upper-body protection.
The injuries from this type of seat
include:
• Getting thrown too far forward,
resulting in serious head and/or
spinal cord injuries
• Submarining UNDER the shield
and receiving spinal/neck injuries
• Being thrown OUT in a side-impact
or rollover collision, then crushed
by the moving vehicle.