How does extending rear facing car seats past 1 year old reduce injury in a car accident?
it seems like no matter what way you put the car seat injury will happen. im just wondering because my baby is 6 months old and his feet are already close to touching the back of the seat in his rear facing convertible car seat. i would like to turn the seat around when he turns 1 year but i heard it should be extended.
jen--for some reason that link doesnt work
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6 Responses to “How does extending rear facing car seats past 1 year old reduce injury in a car accident?”-
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A child’s bones do not ossify until between 3 and 6 years of age. What this means, is that their spinal column is in pieces, which allows it to stretch farther than the spinal cord can withstand. The forces applied to the body in an accident are far greater than most people realize. To estimate this, times weight by speed. A 20 lb baby in a vehicle moving only 30 mph will move toward the point of impact with 600 lbs of force! Now, a properly restrained child will be held in place by the harness, but there is nothing holding back the head. And keep in mind also that a child is proportioned differently than an adult and are already top-heavy. All this pressure on the neck can allow the spinal column to stretch up to two inches. But the spinal cord can only take a quarter of an inch before breaking. This literally separates the skull from the spine. It is known as internal decapitation and is nearly always fatal.
However, put that same child rear facing, and the child will be pushed back into the car seat as the car seat cradles the child and absorbs the crash force for them. Watch the following two videos on YouTube to see this very thing in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMFPSStXfqE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62Ea8Fs4ng
One thing many people now ask is "but what if I’m rear ended, wouldn’t it be safer forward facing?" Actually, the answer is no. First of all, rear end accidents account for only 4% of all accidents. Second, they are very rarely as serious as frontal and side impact because they typically involve lower speeds, and the cars are generally going in the same direction. So while it seems that a rear end accident would be the opposite of a front end crash, it really isn’t. The dynamics are entirely different and a rear facing child will still be very protected. And for side impact crashes, it has been shown that rear facing is significantly safer in these crashes as well.
As for feet touching the vehicle seat: There is nothing wrong with this. Many people think that their child is ‘out of room’ once their feet touch the seat back, but there is still plenty of room for them and it is perfectly safe. Children are comfortable in positions adults would not like. Watch your child climb up on the sofa or sit in a chair. Their legs almost always come up. They can sit in the car seat with their legs propped up on the vehicle seat, drape them over the sides, or sit criss-cross-applesauce.
A rear facing child who’s legs touch the seat are not at risk of their legs being broken. There are actually no documented cases of a child’s legs being broken due to rear facing. However, one of the leading injuries to forward facing children? Broken legs. Watch the videos linked above and watch the limbs of the forward facing dummy. And if a crash were severe enough to break a rear facing child’s legs, it will be more than enough to break a forward facing child’s neck. Broken legs = cast it. Broken neck = casket.
In short, yes, injuries can happen no matter what way a child faces, and some crashes are simply not survivable. But rear facing gives them a much greater chance of walking away from an accident. The statistics say that it is five times (or 500%) safer. That is a very big difference. No one plans on getting in an accident, and we all hope that the measures we take will never be put to the test. But there are no warnings, and no do-overs, so it is up to us to do whatever we can to protect our children in case of an accident.
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This is a great site and contains crash test footage that wil help explain.
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx
Rear-facing is safest for both adults and children, but especially for babies, who would face a greater risk of spinal cord injury in a front-facing carseat during a frontal crash.
Rear-facing car seats spread frontal crash forces over the whole area of a child’s back, head and neck; they also prevent the head from snapping relative to the body in a frontal crash.
Rear-facing carseats may not be quite as effective in a rear end crash, but severe frontal and frontal offset crashes are far more frequent and far more severe than severe rear end crashes.
Rear-facing carseats are NOT a safety risk just because a child’s legs are bent at the knees or because they can touch/kick the vehicle seat.
Rear-facing as long as possible is the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatricians, and can reduce injuries and deaths. Motor Vehicle Crashes are the #1 overall cause of death for children 14 and under.
(From http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html )
*Weird. I’ll try again.
http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html
I think the parentheses was too close to the web address.
Well injury will happen in accident. There is no way around it. But in a rear facing seat he’ll likely break a leg compared to forward facing where he’ll likely break his neck.
true regardless in an accident there is a chance of injury but supposedly the injuries are less severe if the child stays rearfaceing… personally i turned my son at one year (he weighed enough) i plan to turn one of my twins then too if she is big enough, my other twin i will likely keep rear facing as she has other medical concerns that effect her head control
A rear facing car seat is much safer in a front end crash (head on collision) because in the event of a collision, objects in the vehicle will continue to move at the speed of the vehicle prior to collision. Meaning that your child would be thrown forward with the force of a vehicle moving say 30mph – then slammed back into the seat increasing the risk of neck and spinal injuries such as whiplash.
If your child was rear facing the force would throw them back into the carseat which would absorb most of the impact and force rather than treating your baby like a rag doll.
However, a properly installed and utilized carseat can go a long way to protect a child no matter which way they are facing. The majority of fatalities are from accidents in which the car seats were not properly installed or fastened.