All posts by Mike

Family of 5 Killed in Hesperia, CA in Car vs. Van Crash

July 31, 2014 Mike

Who:

Angelica Garcia Garcia, 23; Gerardo Cruz Jimenez Jiminez, 30; Freddie, 9; Cynthia Jiminez, 4; and Ivan Jiminez, 2, were killed at 6:55 AM on Sunday, Mother’s Day, 5/11/14, in a 2005-era Honda Accord at the intersection of Balsam Ave. and Main Street in Hesperia, CA. They were impacted by A 1995-era Ford Econoline delivery van driven by Joshua Smith, 30, who only had minor injuries. The family was en route to Disneyland to celebrate the birthday of Cindy, who would have turned 5 the following day.

How:

Smith was eastbound on Main St. He lost control, crossed the center line, and impacted the Accord, which was stopped at the stop sign at the intersection. Both vehicles traveled across Balsam to the northeast end of the intersection, where the van rolled over the right end of the Accord, trapping Angelica and her daughter, who died at the scene. Gerardo, who drove the Accord, was pulled by bystanders from the vehicle, and tended to by them until paramedics arrived. Freddie was also extricated from the vehicle, but he and his father died after being taken to a hospital. Ivan’s body was not discovered for another 6 hours when the van was lifted off the Accord.

The driver stated to a bystander he had simply looked away for a second. He has not been charged at this point. Per later revealed police reports, he was high on drugs and had fallen asleep while driving.

Why:

This is an incredibly tragic case that occurred because, in almost all certainty, Smith was speeding. Speed is implicated in 1/3rd of all auto fatalities in the US, and cases like this show why. Later information also revealed the driver had been both sleeping and under the influence of narcotics; he was a disaster waiting to happen, and a sad illustration of the levity with which far too many take driving in this country.

The 1995-era Econoline did not come with ESC, which might have helped him regain control before slamming into the Accord. Then again, ESC isn’t magic, and the collision might have occurred anyway, especially if he had been asleep. Similarly, the 2005-era Accord did not come with a roof score. I can’t help but wonder if the results of this collision might have turned out differently if the rollover had occurred on top of a 2011-era Accord, which comes with a “good” roof score. Of course, it is highly possible that fatalities would still have occurred. However, the severity of the injuries impacted by the van might have been sufficiently ameliorated by the roof to buy the hospital valuable time to save lives. There’s no way of knowing without knowledge of the forces placed upon the roof by the Econoline, the forces the roof had been designed to withstand, and an application of the crush force to a 2011-era Accord’s roof to provide a direct comparison.

What does appear to be the case is that the driver’s actions led to the deaths of an entire family of innocent individuals. This is the price of reckless driving, over and over and over again in this country.

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IIf you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.

3 Across Installations: Which Car Seats Fit in a Honda Pilot?

July 30, 2014 Mike

The Honda Pilot is one of the best-selling SUVs or crossovers in the United States, and one of the relatively few 3-row mid-sized SUVs on the market. Competing with 3-row alternatives like the Toyota Highlander, Ford Flex, Hyundai Santa Fe, Ford Explorer, Nissan Pathfinder, Dodge Durango, and Mazda CX-9, the Pilot is frequently chosen by families interested in hauling lots of family without turning to minivans (such as Honda’s own Odyssey).

The latest iteration of the Pilot comes with a plethora of safety features and good safety scores, making it a safe option for families with little ones. ESC, side airbags, front crash prevention, a strong roof, and many more features make it one of the most cutting-edge vehicles on the road. I borrowed a few generations of the Pilot, including the newest one, to see how they did when it came to maximizing car seat options within the 2nd and 3rd rows.

You know the basics of best practices in car seat safety: rear-face as long as possible (ideally until 4!), and then forward-face as long as possible (ideally until 8!), and then booster until a regular belt fits your child (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep kids restrained as safely as possible for as long as possible. It’s too late to do better once you’re in a crash; you’ve got to make the right decisions before you turn on your vehicle, every time.

However, for this information to be helpful, you need to know if a particular car seat will fit in your particular vehicle. Here are my experiences fitting a range of seats inside various years of the Honda Pilot. I’ll periodically update each page as I try more seats in more positions.

You can access the complete 3 across guide for every vehicle here and the complete list of recommended seats here. The Canadian car seat guide is here. 3 across car seat images are courtesy of Wikipedia.

2016, 2017 Honda Pilot

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

Graco Fit4Me (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Graco Size4Me 65 (x3).

Graco Contender (x3).

Clek Fllo, Graco Size4Me 65, Diono Radian / RXT.

Clek Fllo, Graco Size4Me 65 (x2).

Clek Fllo, Diono Radian / RXT (x2).

Graco TurboBooster, Clek Fllo, Diono Radian / RXT.

Graco TurboBooster, Diono Radian / RXT (x2).

Tips and Tricks:

The current generation of the Honda Pilot is more than 194 inches long and close to 79 inches wide, which means you’re pretty much going to be able to fit whatever you want in that 2nd row as long as you’ve got an 8-seater and are also using your seat belts. You’ll also be able to get away with a lot of LATCH installations, but when you’re dealing with wider seats, the seat belts will still give you an edge.

The 3rd row is also pretty spacious, though not nearly as spacious as the 2nd row, both in terms of side to side space and front to back space. You’ll want to focus on the 2nd row unless you absolutely need to use the 3rd, especially given how difficult it is to access it once you start installing car seats in the 2nd row. This issue isn’t unique to the Pilot, but it’s worth keeping in mind.

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Honda Pilot

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

2nd row – Clek Fllo (x3).

2nd row – Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Rainier, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Pacifica, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Olympia, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Britax Frontier 90.

2nd row – Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30, Chicco NextFit.

2nd row – Chicco NextFit, Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30.

2nd row – Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 (x3).

2nd row – Britax Boulevard, Britax Parkway SGL, Britax Frontier 90.

2nd row – Britax Frontier 90, Britax Frontier 90, Britax Boulevard / Marathon.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard.

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard, Britax Frontier 90.

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard, Evenflo Maestro.

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard, Graco Nautilus.

Tips and Tricks:

The 2009-2015 generation Pilot is 79 in wide and 191 in long, or 3 inches wider and longer than the previous generation. As a result, generally, any seat combination that works in the prior generation Pilot will also work in the current generation.

It is best to install an infant seat (e.g., the KeyFit 30) in the 2nd row right outboard seat instead of a convertible (e.g., the NextFit) when attempting 3 across if access to the 3rd row is required, as it will be easier to remove an infant seat from a base to provide 3rd row access than it will be to continually install and remove the convertible.

Per MACPS guidelines, 3-across car seat installations aren’t recommended in the 3rd row due to the degree of overlap between the center and driver’s side seat belts. This doesn’t appear in the vehicle’s manual, although it does appear in the 2015 MACPS manual.

2006, 2007, 2008 Honda Pilot

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

2nd row – Clek Fllo (x3).

2nd row – Clek Foonf (x3).

2nd row – Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 (x3).

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT (x3).

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Rainier, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Pacifica, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Olympia, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Britax Frontier 90.

2nd row – Britax Frontier 90, Britax Frontier 90, Britax Boulevard / Marathon.

2nd row – Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard.

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard, Britax Frontier 90.

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard, Evenflo Maestro.

2nd row – Graco Snugride 35, Britax Marathon / Boulevard, Graco Nautilus.

Tips and Tricks:

As with the next generation Pilot, it is best to install an infant seat (e.g., the KeyFit 30) in the 2nd row right outboard seat instead of a convertible (e.g., the NextFit) when attempting 3 across if access to the 3rd row is required, as it will be easier to remove an infant seat from a base to provide 3rd row access than it will be to continually install and remove the convertible.

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If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.

3 Across Installations: Which Car Seats Will Fit in a Honda CR-V?

July 29, 2014 Mike

The Honda CR-V is my favorite small SUV / crossover, and is easily the most popular one in the country. Families love it because it’s reliable, affordable, and offers a surprising amount of room and utility while getting good gas mileage and looking sharp. It competes with offerings like the Ford Escape and Subaru Forester in the small SUV / crossover market, while being a good alternative to larger SUVs like the Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander. I made it my mission to find out how well every single generation of the CR-V did when it comes to fitting 3 car seats across a Honda CR-V. The results were pretty impressive; it’s not a giant SUV, but you get a wide array of choices.

Before looking into which seats work well in the various years of the CR-V, I always like to look at the basics of best practices in terms of car seat safety. For me, this means trying to rear-face as long as possible (ideally until 4!), and then forward-face as long as possible (ideally until 8!), and then aiming to booster until a regular belt fits your child (which typically happens between 10 and 12). These suggestions are meant to keep your child restrained in the safest positions as long as possible.

However, for this information to be helpful, you need to know if a particular car seat will fit in your particular vehicle. Here are my experiences fitting a range of seats inside various years of the Honda CR-V. I’ll periodically update each page as I try more seats in more positions.

You can access the complete 3 across guide for every vehicle here and the complete list of recommended seats here. Canadians can view their list here. 3 across car seat images are courtesy of Wikipedia.

2017, 2018 Honda CR-V (5th gen)

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Clek Oobr (x3).

Peg Perego Flex 120 (x3).

Maxi-Cosi RodiFix (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Rainier, Diono Radian R120 / RXT,

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Pacifica, Diono Radian R120 / RXT,

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Olympia, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30, Chicco NextFit.

Chicco NextFit, Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Evenflo Maestro, Graco TurboBooster.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Eddie Bauer 3-in-1.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco TurboBooster.

Britax Frontier 90, Combi Coccoro, Safety 1st Complete Air.

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro.

Clek Oobr, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

Tips and Tricks:

The current generation of CR-V is 73 inches wide, or an inch wider than the prior generation. The length of both generations is slightly longer as well at just under 181 inches, indicating you’ll also have a bit more front-to-back length. As a result, this is the roomiest CR-V yet, and you’ll have a slightly easier time fitting seats here than in the past.

As with every generation of the CR-V, however, given the rather short length of the crossover, you’ll want to keep your front-to-back space in mind if you’d like to use the Dionos; I strongly recommend getting the angle adjuster so you won’t make driving your CR-V or sitting in the front passenger seat a negative experience. Similarly, to maximize side-to-side space, use your seat belts instead of the LATCH anchors.

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Honda CR-V (RM1, RM3, RM4)

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Clek Oobr (x3).

Peg Perego Flex 120 (x3).

Maxi-Cosi RodiFix (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Rainier, Diono Radian R120 / RXT,

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Pacifica, Diono Radian R120 / RXT,

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Olympia, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30, Chicco NextFit.

Chicco NextFit, Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Evenflo Maestro, Graco TurboBooster.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Eddie Bauer 3-in-1.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco TurboBooster.

Britax Frontier 90, Combi Coccoro, Safety 1st Complete Air.

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro.

Clek Oobr, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

Tips and Tricks:

The 2012-2016 generation of CR-V is 72 inches wide, which remains unchanged from the width of the prior generation. The length of both generations is also the same at 178 inches, indicating front to back length will also be the same. As a result, any seats that can fit in the current generation, in general, will also fit in the previous generation.

2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Honda CR-V

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Clek Oobr (x3).

Peg Perego Flex 120 (x3).

Maxi-Cosi RodiFix (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Rainier, Diono Radian R120 / RXT,

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Pacifica, Diono Radian R120 / RXT,

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Olympia, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30, Chicco NextFit.

Chicco NextFit, Chicco NextFit, Chicco KeyFit 30.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Evenflo Maestro, Graco TurboBooster.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Eddie Bauer 3-in-1.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco TurboBooster.

Britax Frontier 90, Combi Coccoro, Safety 1st Complete Air.

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro.

Clek Oobr, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT.

Tips and Tricks:

This generation of CR-V is 2 inches wider (72 vs 70 in) and 1 inch shorter (178 vs 179 in) than the prior generation, which means you have more options for 3 across seating. As with every generation of the CR-V, however, given the rather short length of the crossover, you’ll want to keep your front-to-back space in mind if you’d like to use the Dionos; I strongly recommend getting the angle adjuster so you won’t make driving your CR-V or sitting in the front passenger seat a negative experience. Similarly, to maximize side-to-side space, use your seat belts instead of the LATCH anchors.

2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Honda CR-V

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Clek Oobr (x3).

Peg Perego Flex 120 (x3).

Maxi-Cosi RodiFix (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco TurboBooster.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Safety 1st Complete Air.

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco Snugride 35.

Britax Frontier 90, Combi Coccoro, Safety 1st Complete Air.

Tips and Tricks:

This generation of CR-V is 1 inch wider (70 vs 69 in) and 1 inch longer (179 vs 178 in) than the prior generation, which means you have more options for 3 across seating. As with every generation of the CR-V, however, given the rather short length of the crossover, you’ll want to keep your front-to-back space in mind if you’d like to use the Dionos; I strongly recommend getting the angle adjuster so you won’t make driving your CR-V or sitting in the front passenger seat a negative experience. Similarly, to maximize side-to-side space, use your seat belts instead of the LATCH anchors.

1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Honda CR-V

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Clek Oobr (x3).

Peg Perego Flex 120 (x3).

Maxi-Cosi RodiFix (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Diono Radian R120 / RXT, Graco TurboBooster.

Britax Frontier 90, Combi Coccoro, Safety 1st Complete Air.

Tips and Tricks:

This generation of CR-V is the smallest, which makes 3 across seating the most challenging. Your best bet will be some form of Diono in most cases, although it is possible to have installations that don’t involve the Diono, as indicated above.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Join us in the forums!

Why Are Swedish Roads So Safe?

July 28, 2014 Mike

Sweden is essentially the blueprint when it comes to best practices for car seat safety, but there are also a number of things we can learn from the country when it comes to general car safety. This will be the start of a series of posts investigating the safety of Swedish roads and determining what we can learn from them at a national, state, community, and individual level to make our roads safer for everyone.

This article from the Economist provides a brief primer to recent developments in Swedish road safety. A record low was set in 2013, with only 264 people dying in car crashes. The current death rate (for 2013) is approximately 3 per 100,000 Swedes, compared to 11.4 per 100,000 in the US, and 40 per 100,000 in the Dominican Republic, where the roads are the most dangerous on the planet in per capita terms.

To provide another perspective, in 2012 in the US, the most recent year for which full data is available, 33,561 people lost their lives, while the population was 313.9 million, for a rate of 10.7 per 100,000. There are around 9.7 million Swedes. If the US 2012 death rate could have been reduced to Swedish 2013 levels, only 9,417 individuals would have perished, instead of 33,561.

That’s an incredible difference, isn’t it?

The last time the US had an auto death rate as low as 3 per 100,000 was in 1912, the year the Titanic sank. Back then, 2,968 people died, and the US population as 95 million. The last time we lost only 9,000 individuals to car crashes was in 1917, when we lost 9,630, and there were 103 million in the country. By then, though, the death rate was almost was bad as it is now, as it had already soared in just five years to 9.3 per 100,000.

So what has made the difference?

Deaths from car crashes are unacceptable to the Swedish government

Well, a big part of it was the “Vision Zero” project.

In 1997 the Swedish parliament wrote into law a “Vision Zero” plan, promising to eliminate road fatalities and injuries altogether. “We simply do not accept any deaths or injuries on our roads,” says Hans Berg of the national transport agency. Swedes believe—and are now proving—that they can have mobility and safety at the same time.

Interesting, isn’t it? The goal of completely eliminating fatalities and injuries in collisions, and the perspective that any deaths or injuries were unacceptable. It’s an idea that would be greeted with scorn in the US, as here we accept car crashes and the needless miseries they bring as facts of life, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of them are preventable.

Planning has played the biggest part in reducing accidents. Roads in Sweden are built with safety prioritised over speed or convenience. Low urban speed-limits, pedestrian zones and barriers that separate cars from bikes and oncoming traffic have helped.

Planning has been mentioned by a number of sources as one of the factors that sets the US apart (in a bad way) from fellow rich countries making much bigger gains in reducing deaths. Look at that–roads built for safety over convenience. That means roads that slow travelers, since speed = death, as you’ve likely seen from so many calculations on this blog. It shouldn’t be convenient to travel at 70 or 80 mph by car; people, by far and large, aren’t capable of managing vehicles with the necessary accuracy at those speeds.

Pedestrian deaths increase disproportionally with speed

Similarly, lower speed limits in urban zones are essential. A car hitting you at 20 mph has somewhere around a 5% chance of killing you. By 30 mph, those odds jump to 50%, and by 40 mph, you’ve got a 95% chance of being dead. It’s not linear; it’s exponential. This is why car crashes become serious so quickly with even just a bit of speeding. Yet speeding runs rampant throughout the US, and we pay for it with blood.

How do we protect cyclists – and how do cyclists protect us?

The same issue arises when discussing traffic separation. Bicycles are not cars; they have no inherent protection, much like pedestrians, and must be separated from vehicular traffic, much like pedestrians. In bike-friendly countries, bicycles have dedicated lanes, like sidewalks, but for bicycles, that go everywhere roads do. As a result, people feel safe to ride, which makes the roads even safer, as drivers learn to look out for cyclists. It’s a virtuous cycle.

Building 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) of “2+1” roads—where each lane of traffic takes turns to use a middle lane for overtaking—is reckoned to have saved around 145 lives over the first decade of Vision Zero. And 12,600 safer crossings, including pedestrian bridges and zebra-stripes flanked by flashing lights and protected with speed-bumps, are estimated to have halved the number of pedestrian deaths over the past five years.

This is an elaboration of previous points. The most vulnerable travelers (pedestrians and cyclists) need to be protected. 2+1 roads, furthermore, in Sweden, are frequently designed with cable barriers, which are a great way of preventing the head on collisions that take so many lives on rural roads in the US (which are where most road fatalities in the US occur). The Swedes realized that it simply didn’t make sense to have human-steered vehicles hurtling toward each other in opposite directions at breakneck speeds with nothing between them but air and a broken yellow line.

Strict policing has also helped: now less than 0.25% of drivers tested are over the alcohol limit. Road deaths of children under seven have plummeted—in 2012 only one was killed, compared with 58 in 1970.

Sobriety testing and checkpoints are considered “meddling” by “big government” in the US, but in other countries where citizens place higher weight on the collective good, these checkpoints are much more common, and the separation of alcohol and the automobile is taken far, far more seriously.

And because this is also a car seat blog, here’s another reference to that amazing commitment to child safety. Only one child under 7 died in a car collision in 2012. A direct comparison is hard to find in the US, but in 2012, 480 children 8 and under died while passengers. At the Swedish proportion (1/264), we would have expected around 127 children 8 and under to have died. The fact that nearly 4x as many died is as clear an indicator as any that the Swedes are protecting their children in cars much better than we are. I strongly suspect a default acceptance of ERF plays a significant role in this magnitude of a difference.

Eventually, cars may do away with drivers altogether. This may not be as far off as it sounds: Volvo, a car manufacturer, will run a pilot programme of driverless cars in Gothenburg in 2017, in partnership with the transport ministry. Without erratic drivers, cars may finally become the safest form of transport.

The article ends with a look toward the future and a nod toward driverless cars. While I doubt driverless cars will surpass air travel in safety per mile, I do fully believe they will overwhelmingly surpass human-driven cars in safety, and cannot wait until their presence is as prevalent as the seat belt.

Oh, and the Volvo project has already started.

So what is there to learn from this? Clearly, the Swedes are taking a different approach to auto safety than we are here in the United States. People-centered (rather than auto-centered) planning, lower speed limits, much tighter restrictions on alcohol, and a commitment to eliminating deaths, or an entirely different conceptualization of the inevitability of the auto fatality, are all reaping benefits.

When can we try this here?

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2014: The Best & Safest Car Seats Under $200

July 27, 2014 Mike

When it comes to car safety, you can focus on driving safely and you can focus on choosing a safe car. However, if you have children, you also need to focus on choosing a safe car seat. This is one of a series of reviews I’ll write on what I consider to be the best car seats currently available in the United States.

However, not everyone has the money for a rear-facing beast like the Rainier or Foonf, or the current forward-facing leaders, the Frontier 90 and the Pinnacle 90. So what’s a parent invested in car safety but on a smaller budget to do?

This is what this post is designed to answer. In my opinion, the best choice under $200 currently on the market for ERF is the Graco Size4Me 65, while the best choice under $200 currently on the market for forward-facing and boostering is the Britax Pioneer 70. These two seats show that keeping your children safe doesn’t need to break the family piggy bank.

The Best and Safest Convertible Car Seat for Extended Rear-Facing for under $200

Why do I like the Size4Me 65 so much? Well, you can read the full review of it here. But in a nutshell, it allows rear-facing from 5-40 pounds and includes a shell height of around 27.5.” This means that virtually every child in the seat will be able to reach 40 pounds before outgrowing it.

For a 50th percentile boy or girl by weight, that weight range won’t be reached until 5 years!

This is a seat that will allow your child to rear-face as long as a child in a country with the best rear-facing policies in the world (Sweden), and for less than $40 a year over the course of its useful rear-facing life! To me, that’s nothing short of amazing.

As a bonus, the Size4Me can then be used as a forward-facing seat until a child reaches 65 pounds or 52″ in height. This is as long as one of the highest quality car seats currently available, the Foonf, can be used in forward-facing mode by weight, and even longer than the Foonf by height!

There are drawbacks to the Size4Me, of course. For example, children who are much higher on the weight percentiles will outgrow it as a rear-facing seat before turning 5. For such children, seats like the Rainier or Foonf, with their 50 pound rear-facing weight limits would be better choices. But for typical weight children of parents on a budget, this is currently the best seat on the market, in my opinion, for extended rear-facing.

I recommend the Graco Size4Me 65 wholeheartedly. You can buy the Graco Size4Me 65 in a range of colors here.

Of course, there’s more to car seat safety than rear-facing. Eventually, your child will need to forward-face, and the Size4Me 65 tops out at 65 pounds. There are a number of expensive seats that will allow you to forward-face in a harness for a long time, but what if you’re on a budget?

The Best and Safest Combination Car Seat for Forward-Facing and Boostering for under $200

Why do I like the Pioneer 70 so much? Well, you can read the full review of it here. But in a nutshell, it allows forward-facing in a harness from 25-70 pounds and includes a top harness height of 19.5.” This means that most children will actually be able to reach 70 pounds before outgrowing it.

For a 50th percentile boy or girl by weight, that weight range won’t be reached until around 9 years!

This is a seat that will allow your child to forward-face in a harness well into the range at which most children are developmentally mature enough to begin using a booster (age 8) and for less than $50 a year over the course of its useful forward-facing life if used from age 5 to age 9! To me, that’s nothing short of amazing.

From there, it can then be used as a booster seat until a child weighs 110 pounds or 60″ in height. Most children will need boosters until they are between 4’9″ and 5′ in height, which means that the Pioneer could be the last car seat your child ever needs!

There are drawbacks to the Pioneer 70, of course. For example, children who are much higher on the height or weight percentiles will outgrow it as a forward-facing seat before turning 9. For such children, seats like the Frontier 90 or Pinnacle 90, with their 20.5″ top harness heights and 90 pound forward-facing weight limits, would be better choices. But for typical weight children of parents on a budget, this is currently the best seat on the market, in my opinion, for forward-facing and then boostering children.

I recommend the Britax Pioneer 70 wholeheartedly. You can buy the Britax Pioneer 70 in a range of colors here.

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