Consumer Reports Retracts Car Seat Story

Last week, Consumer Reports published a story about infant car seats and declared in its test results that 10 of the 12 seats tested failed the impact test at 38.5 mph.

We now learn that the tests were flawed and that the test appears to have been at nearly double the speed. As a result Consumer Reports has recalled its report and will retest all the car seats:

Consumer Reports is withdrawing its recent report on infant car seats pending further tests of the performance of those seats in side-impact collisions.

A new report will be published with any necessary revisions as soon as possible after the new tests are complete.

We withdrew the report immediately upon discovering a substantive issue that may have affected the original test results. The issue came to light based on new information received Tuesday night and Wednesday morning from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concerning the speed at which our side-impact tests were conducted.

The original study, published in the February issue of Consumer Reports, was aimed at discovering how infant seats performed in tests at speeds that match those used in the government’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). This program tests most new vehicles in crashes at speeds of 35 mph for frontal impact and 38 mph for side impact. Child safety seats, in contrast, are currently tested only in front-impact crashes at speeds of 30 mph.

Our tests were intended to simulate side crashes at the NCAP speed of 38 mph. The new information raises a question about whether the tests accurately simulated that speed, however, so we are now reviewing our tests and the resulting article.

However, CR stands by its call for a recall of two other car seats because of failures in the frontal car crash test.

Legalbgl made an interesting observation in email. Two of the seats actually passed this flawed test. Does this mean that they can protect an infant successfully up to the speeds indicated in the flawed test? The Graco Snug Ride with EPS passed at the higher test speed of 70 mph. So even if they retest at the mandated level of 38.5 mph, would you get the seat that passed at 38.5 mph but failed at 70 mph or get the seat that still passed at 70 mph? He would go with the one that passed at the higher speed.

I think he is definitely on to something here.