October, 2003

Consumer Reports, "THE CONSUMERS UNION PERSPECTIVE: Cars should be made safer for children." (Excerpt)

Promising technologies are emerging, or exist, to make vehicles safer for children. Consumers Union is pressing the auto industry, Congress, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to give serious consideration to them in three particular areas:

Backup warning devices. These systems, which include sensor and camera models, are designed to alert drivers when there is an obstacle behind their vehicle so that they don't back over it. CU thinks that some of the devices might have promise, especially since big vehicles such as pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles are proliferating and, as our testing has found, the rear blind spot for their drivers is substantial.

Power-window devices. Last year four children were strangled by power windows that did not have lever-type switches or auto-reverse sensors to stop them from closing when they hit an obstacle such as an arm or neck, according to Kids and Cars. The culprits include switches that raise the window when they are depressed, as by a child's knee or foot.

Child car seats. Current car-seat technology needs renewed attention from car-seat manufacturers and automakers. Consumer Reports recently tested 25 car seats equipped with the federally required LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system, which is supposed to make the seats simpler to install. We found that LATCH connectors on several models made proper installation difficult at best. When the fit is poor, the child is not fully protected.

In addition, the hooks and anchors in numerous vehicles can be difficult to use when installing a car seat, our ongoing vehicle tests have shown. CU urges car and car-seat makers to work to make the use of LATCH connections easier.