3 Across Installations: Which Car Seats Fit in an Infiniti Q50?

March 27, 2016 Mike

The Infiniti Q50, which is also known as the Nissan Skyline in its native Japan, is Nissan’s update to the long-loved G sedan. It’s sleek, angular, and designed to compete with other compact-to-midsized luxury sedans like the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Volvo S60, Lexus ES, and Acura TLX.

Like the vehicles it competes with, the Q50 hits the ground running with a range of top notch crash scores and safety features, including side airbags and ESC, as well as frontal crash protection in the latest models. As a result,even if you aren’t an executive or business-type, the Q50 is worth considering if you’re a parent interested in a luxurious Nissan with top-notch safety features. As a result, I got up close and personal with the initial generation of the Q50 to see just how car-seat friendly it would be for interested families.

Before looking at which car seats did and didn’t fit in the Q50 in 3 across setups, it’s worth reviewing a bit of car safety, in terms of which kinds of seats to use and when.

For me, the most basic and essential part of car seat safety involves rear-facing. It’s the safest position we know of, and the longer our kids rear-face, the safer they’ll be, regardless of what kind of vehicle they travel in. I recommend keeping children in rear-facing infant or convertible seats as long as possible (ideally until 4!), then keeping them harnessed in forward-facing seats for several years more (ideally until 8!), and then only switching them out of booster seats when they pass the 5 step test (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep kids in the safest kinds of seats for as long as possible to increase their odds of surviving serious car crashes.

With that all in mind, I got to work with my seats to create what I believe to be the most detailed 3 across guide for the Infiniti Q50 on the Internet. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.

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 taken by yours truly or are courtesy of Wikipedia.

2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Infiniti Q50

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30, Diono Radian / RXT, Chicco KeyFit 30.

Tips and Tricks:

The initial generation Q50 is 188 inches long (except in the Chinese-only Q50L, which is 191 inches long) and just under 72 inches wide, which gives you about as much space as you’ll find in typical mid-sized luxury cars on the market. The back row isn’t the widest, but it’s definitely wide enough as long as you’re willing to use your seat belts instead of LATCH for the installation. Remember that seat belts are as safe as LATCH, and in some cases, safer, depending on the weight limits of your car seats.

The biggest issues you’re likely to deal with in the Q50 involve the bucket seats in the outboard positions and the strange hump in the center seat; it makes it hard to balance a seat in the middle, and you might need to resort to rolled up towels or pool noodles to get the proper recline angle. Make sure your car seat permits this; most do, but a few (e.g., the Clek seats) are more particular. Read your manuals!

Because the Q50 isn’t on the shorter end as far as luxury sedans go, you might find yourself compromised on front-to-back space, especially if you’ve got taller drivers or passengers. If you’re interested in which safe seats take up the least space, you might want to check out my front-to-back comparison chart for rear-facing convertibles.

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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.

School Buses Safer than Driving / Walking Your Child to School

March 26, 2016 Mike

The school bus is the safest way to transport children.

One of the questions I frequently get from parents involves school transportation safety. Parents usually ask me whether it’s better to use one way or another, and if the “best” way changes with the age of their children.

I understand the concern. I have kids of my own, and think about their safety and development every day. We send our kids to school through a variety of ways, although the two most common ways involve school buses and driving them, followed by walking and bicycling. However we do it, we want to make sure our kids are protected. But what’s the safest way?

The answer is the school bus. When it comes to getting your child to and from his or her school, there isn’t a safer way, statistically speaking, than by bus. Let’s dive into why.

How much safer are school buses than teens driving themselves or parents driving them?

This chart from School Bus Facts lays out the case clearly for students traveling by school bus instead of with teen drivers or even parents. For every 100 students who died traveling to school in a given year, more than 58 were either driving themselves or riding with fellow teens. Another 23 were killed while being transported by parents. Another 18 died through other causes (e.g., being hit as pedestrians or cyclists, as motorcycle occupants, and in other types of vehicles). Only one was likely to die while traveling by school bus.

To put it another way, it’s more than 50 times safer for students to travel by bus than by driving themselves or with other teens, and it’s more than 20 times safer for students to travel by bus than with their own parents.

This is huge.

However, the dramatic safety differences become clearer when we put some actual numbers into the statistics. Per an NHTSA Safety In Numbers newsletter, close to 500 (490) students between 5 and 18 die annually in passenger vehicles (e.g., cars, SUVs, minivans, etc) during hours of school-related travel (i.e., 6-9 AM and 2-5 PM), and 74% of those fatalities involve teen drivers. An additional 100 children between 5 and 18 will die each year while walking or cycling to school (75 pedestrians and 21 bicyclists).

How many school-age children will die each year while riding school buses, in contrast?

Only 4. Far less than 100, and far, far less than 500.

What makes school buses so much safer than cars, even when parents drive?

School buses are safer than cars, whether those cars are driven by teenagers or by parents, because school buses are designed with safety in mind. They’re larger, heavier, and more structurally sound than passenger vehicles. They need to meet far more federal safety standards than passenger vehicles, including the use of overhead flashing lights, which increase visibility, and stop arms to stop traffic when loading and unloading students.

Additionally, school buses have closely spaced seats that absorb energy to protect students in collisions; these seats keep students safe without seat belts by cushioning them and keeping them close to where they are seated. The process is commonly called compartmentalization, and it works well in comparison with the much greater mass of school buses, which results in much lower crash forces.

Beyond these factors, school bus drivers are highly trained and pay far more attention to the task of driving than the average driver. They are also more likely to follow traffic rules and regulations (including speed limits and stop signs) due to being profesional drivers.

Why are school buses safer than walking or bicycling to school?

School-age children are 5x less likely to die (4 vs 21) while riding the bus than while bicycling to school, and close to 20x less likely to die (4 vs 75) while riding the bus than while walking to school. Why is this?

Unfortunately, it comes down to the prevalence of vehicles throughout the country, and the massive protection offered by a school bus compared to the complete lack of protection present when walking or cycling. I’m a huge fan of walking and cycling to get places, but in a country with lots of passenger vehicles, it does involve risk. These pedestrians and cyclists were killed by other vehicles; when those vehicles crash into school buses, the occupants in the school buses almost always survive.

What do I do if we live too close to school to take the bus, or if it simply isn’t an option for us? Do we walk, cycle, or drive?

If you can’t use a school bus to get your child to school (perhaps due to attending a private school, for example, or due to conflicting schedules), then I’d encourage you to make the safest choice for your family. If you have a safe path for walking or cycling, this would be my preference, as it minimizes the risk of road traffic and contact with thoughtless motor vehicle operators. If walking or cycling isn’t an option, then I’d drive my kids. The least preferred option, by far, would be to have my kids drive themselves; this is where most school-age child fatalities occur, year after year.

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!

3 Across Installations: Fiat 500L, Which Car Seats Fit Well?

March 21, 2016 Mike

The Fiat 500L is one of the most distinctive small cars you can buy today in the United States, and also one of the safest cars for surviving side impact collisions. It competes with a bevy of small cars currently sold throughout the US, including the Mini Cooper Countryman, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Ford Focus, Nissan Sentra, Kia Soul, Kia Forte, Dodge Dart, Chevrolet Cruze, Mazda 3, Toyota Prius, Scion xB, Volkswagen Golf, and Subaru Crosstrek. It’s the larger version of its smaller cousin, the Fiat 500.

It’s a crowded market, but the 500L is slowly carving out a niche for itself. Besides its great side impact performance, it also features ESC, side airbags, a good roof, and a good moderate overlap score. Its greatest weakness as of 2015 is its poor small overlap front score, which Fiat Chrysler America needs to address, and soon. That said, it’s an increasingly popular choice among families interested in a peppy hatchback that stands out in a crowd. I wanted to find out how good of a choice it would be for families hoping to install 3 car seats across the back row. The bad news is that the fit is a tight one. The good news is that it’s possible with a surprising number of seats, particularly when you use your seat belts for the installations.

Before going into those details, though, I always like to briefly review some of what I consider to be the basics of car seat safety. It doesn’t matter what you’re driving if you don’t safely restrain your children, and the best practices of safe restraints change with the kind of seat used and the age of your child.

For me, car seat safety starts with rear-facing your kids as long as you can (ideally until 4!). That’s the safest position and is worth doing as long as possible before forward-facing your little ones in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!). Once they outgrow their harnessed seats, I suggest keeping children in high-back boosters until they’re physically and psychologically ready to use adult seat belt systems (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep kids as safely restrained for as long as possible, as it’s far too late to do anything for your child’s safety in the moment before a collision.

Keeping these ideas in mind, I set to work to find which infant, convertible, combination, and booster seats would work best in 3 across combinations in the Fiat 500L. I found several good options and a few great ones. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.

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.

2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Fiat 500L

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Clek Fllo, Diono Radian / RXT, Diono Radian / RXT.

Chicco KeyFit 30, Clek Fllo, Chicco KeyFit 30.

Tips and Tricks:

The current generation of the Fiat 500L is a scant 163 inches long and just over 70 inches wide, which places it on the narrower end of compact / small cars available today in the US. What this means is that your interior space will limit the range of car seats you can install in the 500L, although you’ll still be able to choose between a few as long as they’re narrow ones.

Given the shorter length of the 500L, you will need to watch your front-to-back space when dealing with tall seats. If you’re using the Radians, you’ll definitely want to make use of the angle adjuster to get as much extra room between the car seat and the vehicle’s front seats as possible; this will give you extra leg room as a driver or front seat passenger.

Given the width of the 500L, something I frequently recommend is to use your seat belts instead of your LATCH anchors to make the most of that side-to-side space. Remember that seat belts are as safe as LATCH anchors and are more versatile in a number of situations.

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Driving in Norway Safer than Driving in US (And Reasons Why)

March 16, 2016 Mike

Driving safely...how do we bring that to the US? — Driving safely…how do we bring that to the US?

Recently, I wrote about how Norway, the ice palace that served as the geographic inspiration for Frozen (yes, really), was on the verge of completing their first year since the introduction of the automobile without a single child fatality. That’s right–not a single child under 10 had died a traffic-related death in Norway in 2015 as of early December (3 under 15 would eventually die). This is admirable, and shows just how effective a nationwide effort to practice extended rear-facing can be. It also shows how far we have to go as a nation in the US before we reach the point where virtually no children die due to auto traffic.

That said, I got to wondering: if the roads were that safe for children in Norway, could they also be safer for adults?

The answer is…yes!

It’s safer to be a driver or passenger in Norway than in the US

Per the article in The Local Norway, 113 Norwegians had died on the roadways as of November 2015, making this the safest year so far. In comparison, last year, 147 had died. Let’s use last year’s number and compare it to the 2013 (the most recent available) death toll in the United States: 32,719.

In 2014, there were 5.156 million Norwegians and 147 road deaths. In other words, there were 28.5 road fatalities per million Norwegians, or 2.85 road fatalities per 100,000.

In 2013, there were 316.5 million Americans and 32,719 road deaths in 2013. This figures out to 103.4 road fatalities per million Americans, or 10.34 road fatalities per 100,000.

The ratio of US road deaths to Norwegian road deaths last year, then, was 3.6. In other words, you were almost 4 times more likely to die by auto traffic as an American than a Norwegian.

That’s huge.

To put it another way, if our death rate had been as low as Norway’s, even when scaled up to our much larger population, we would only have lost around 9,092 men, women, and children instead of 32,719. Close to 24,000 lives could have been saved.

Why are Norwegian drivers so much less likely to die than American drivers?

Let’s see what Jan Johansen, the director of Trygg Trafikk (TT), the Norwegian Council for Road Safety, had to say:

“Norwegians have become much better in traffic. People have better attitudes, we have gotten better roads and safer vehicles than we had ten to 15 years ago.”

So drivers in Norway are presumably safer, less aggressive ones. The infrastructure has been improved, in terms of road safety, and the vehicles have been safer.

None of this is magic. We could do all of this here.

How to reduce driver deaths in the US compared to Norway

Regarding the driver component, I’ve written before about how a full 50% of car crash deaths are due to single vehicle crashes–the kind where a driver veers off the road and rolls over or crashes into a tree. Those can be prevented, by far and large, simply by driving at or *below* the speed limit, as well as by driving sober, since both speeding and alcohol are implicated in 1/3rd of vehicular fatalities every single year in the United States.

Of course, additional factors like driving with head lights, driving during the day time, and driving as little as possible also make a significant difference. Norwegians, for example, drive on average 9,300 miles a year, compared to approximately 13,500 miles a year in the US. Since every mile increases your exposure to unsafe drivers, fatigue, poor weather, or other factors beyond your control, no matter how safe of a vehicle you drive or how safe of a driver you are, the less time you spend in a vehicle, the less likely you are to die while driving (or being a passenger).

Regarding infrastructure, simply installing dividers on every road with 40+ mph traffic would go a long way toward reducing highway fatalities, as would installing speed and traffic cameras everywhere. IIf you aren’t speeding, you’re much less likely to crash; it’s that simple. And if there’s separation on high speed roadways, you’re much less likely to kill someone by crossing lanes or be killed by someone else who crossed into your lane. I’ve written about so many lane-crossing fatal collisions in the US that could have been prevented by simple barricades. There is no need for so many of the deaths on our roads.

Regarding vehicle safety, outfitting every vehicle on the road with ESC, side impact airbags, and ensuring they all had good frontal and side scores would do a great deal toward making vehicles safer. However, another crucial step would be to reduce the weight discrepancies on our roads and reduce the overall weights of road vehicles. Small cars are safer for everyone.

There’s no reason for the average driver to have access to a 5,000 pound vehicle (e.g., a large pickup truck) for commuting while other commuters are driving 2,500 pound vehicles (e.g., a subcompact car). In the US, cheap fuel, a lack of taxes based on vehicle weights, mileage, and emissions, and limitless availability of credit results in a vehicular arms race in every city and on every highway throughout the country, where people buy large vehicles because they’re afraid of being left out in the cold with small ones, or simply because they enjoy being able to be in bigger vehicles. It appeals to our lower, primitive brains, but it’s not the direction we need to head in if we’re truly interested in building a safer society.

And no, the solution isn’t to get everyone in 5,000 pound vehicles, because a.) that negates the advantages of heavier vehicles, and b.) that makes life exponentially more difficult (i.e., shorter) for people who will *never* have vehicular protection, such as children, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. And no matter what we drive, at some point during the day, every single person in this country who uses a vehicle is a pedestrian, whether through walking or through wheel-chairs. And we all deserve to live without the fear of being run over by giant vehicles.

Does this mean there’s nothing left to be done in Norway for road safety?

However, just because things are much safer in Norway, road-wise, than they are in the US, doesn’t mean Norwegians think things are good enough:

“I would also point out that there is no reason to jump for joy. So far this year, 113 people have been killed. That is 113 too many,” Johansen told Dagbladet.

He’s right; there’s still much more to be done. There’s no reason for any road deaths in any country. But at 113, they’re a lot closer to zero than we are.

3 Across Installations: Volvo XC70, Which Car Seats Fit Well?

March 11, 2016 Mike

The Volvo XC70 is one of the last few large wagons sold in the United States, and one of the safest ever made. Soon to be replaced by the V90, it has few competitors in the US market; only vehicles like the Subaru Outback, Volkswagen Jetta wagon, Audi A4 wagon, and Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon readily come to mind. While not as popular as the Outback, it still holds its own in many wintry parts of the US. Its sedan counterpart is the S80 (and was the S60 in the past), while its smaller Volvo wagon counterpart is the V60.

Like the S80, a range of top notch safety features and crash scores are present in the XC70, including side airbags, ESC, and frontal crash protection in the latest models. As a result, it’s no surprise that a number of safety-conscious families look to the XC70 to keep their families protected while on the road. As a result, I took the time to check out the XC70 to see just how car-seat friendly it is for interested families.

Before looking at which car seats did and didn’t fit in the XC70 in 3 across setups, it’s worth reviewing a bit of car safety, in terms of which kinds of seats to use and when.

With that all in mind, I got to work with my seats to create what I believe to be the most detailed 3 across guide for the Volvo XC70 on the Internet. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.

2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Volvo XC70 (2nd gen)

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

Graco Size4Me 65 (x3).

Graco Head Wise 65 (x3).

Graco Fit4Me 65 (x3).

Graco Contender (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30, Diono Radian / RXT, Chicco KeyFit 30.

Tips and Tricks:

The second (and final) generation XC70 is more than 190 inches long and close to 74 inches wide, making it a rather friendly car for 3 across installations, especially when seat belt restraints are used instead of LATCH lower anchors. You can definitely use LATCH instead of seat belts in the XC70, or in any other vehicle that supplies them, but you won’t use space nearly as efficiently in the back row. And remember that seat belts are as safe as LATCH, and in some cases, safer, depending on the weight limits of your car seats.

2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Volvo XC70 (1st gen)

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30 (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Chicco KeyFit 30, Diono Radian / RXT, Chicco KeyFit 30.

Tips and Tricks:

The first generation XC70 is more than 186 inches long and just over 73 inches wide, or about 4 inches shorter and 1 inch narrower than the second generation. It’s a decent car for 3 across installations, especially when seat belt restraints are used instead of LATCH lower anchors. You can definitely use LATCH instead of seat belts in the XC70, or in any other vehicle that supplies them, but you won’t use space nearly as efficiently in the back row. And remember that seat belts are as safe as LATCH, and in some cases, safer, depending on the weight limits of your car seats.

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35,000 Americans will die this year on the road. You don't have to be one of them. A car seat and car safety blog to promote best practices for families.