The number of overweight and obese children in the United States has continued to grow, more than tripling in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In response to the increasing population of larger, heavier children, safety restraint manufacturers have introduced car seats with higher weight capacities.
Given the cost and complexity of developing child-size crash test dummies, the agency responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of car seats, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has experienced delays in accounting for overweight and obese children in its testing, prompting safety advocates and attorneys in California and throughout the country to question how well the seats protect such children from suffering serious personal injury in crashes.
The federal government has recorded a significant increase in the percentage of overweight and obese children in the American population: from 1980 to 2008, the percentage of obese children aged 6 to 11 years rose from 7 percent to 20 percent. These conditions make children more susceptible to the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as several long-term health problems.
Until recently, overweight and obese children were also at a disadvantage when they traveled, as few safety restraint manufacturers made car seats to accommodate them. In 2006, MSNBC.com reported that “at least 283,305 children aged 1 to 6 were too heavy for standard safety seats.” The news agency based its findings on national growth charts and the 2000 Census.
Safety restraint manufacturers, however, soon introduced seats with greater weight limits. The maximum weight of the Orbit Infant Car Seat G2 rose from 22 pounds to 30; Britax Child Safety’s Frontier 85 model booster seat could hold a child weighing up to 120 pounds; and Dorel Juvenile Group’s MaxI-Cosi Pria 70 could hold children from infancy to 70 pounds, reported Edmunds.com.
Although the NHTSA has been using crash test dummies to evaluate the effectiveness of car seats at protecting against injury in a collision since 1979, it only recently developed a test dummy to represent children weighing 65 to 80 pounds. Enacted on November 1, 2002, Public Law 107-318, also known as “Anton’s Law,” mandated that the NHTSA establish performance requirements for child restraints for children weighing more than 50 pounds and to develop a crash test dummy to simulate the effects of an accident on a restrained, 10-year-old child.
The NHTSA attempted to meet its responsibilities under the law by commissioning the development of the HIII-10C, a crash test dummy that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of child restraints sold for children weighing up to 80 pounds. In its earliest tests with the device, issues with its biofidelity caused impacts that were unlikely to occur in real crashes, resulting in high variability Head Injury Criterion (HIC) measurements. The agency attempted to correct the issue through the positioning of the dummy, but the variability remained. It now intends to begin using the HIII-10C in crash tests, though it will not test for HIC.
While federal crash testing does account for car seats designed for overweight and obese children, it is somewhat limited in its evaluation of the protection against personal injury the seats provide, explains an attorney. Until the issues with the NHTSA’s crash test dummy are addressed, parents in California and throughout the country may want to supplement government test results and ratings with additional research.
