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December 31, 2006
CHILD RESTRAINT INSTALLATION PROBLEMS CONTINUE
A NHTSA study has found that parents continue to be confused and frustrated in their attempts to properly install child restraints, despite the agency’s “LATCH” (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) requirements, which were meant to ease installation. The study blamed “a lack of eduction about the system and how to use it…”
“LATCH is an installation system that was created to standardize the way child safety seats are attached to vehicles without having to use a seat belt. LATCH consists of two lower attachments and an upper tether on a child safety seat that anchors and connects with lower anchors and a top tether built into a vehicle’s back seat,” the study explained. Yet “40 percent of parents still rely on the vehicles’ seat belts when installing their car seat” and “many parents are unaware of the existence of or the importance of the tethers when securing the seat to the vehicle and only 55 percent of parents are using the top tether.”
The agency plans to convene a meeting shortly of “LATCH stakeholders, the auto manufacturers, the car seat manufacturers, the retailers and the consumer activists… to discuss ways to make the safety system more efficient.”
Posted by MVHAP at December 31, 2006 11:33 AM