When it comes to car seats and keeping kids safe in cars, there are a lot of myths that circle around the Internet and water coolers. Many parents think rear-facing is only necessary until 1 (it’s safest to rear-face until at least 4 or 5). Others think seat belts and car seats aren’t necessary for short trips (kids can get seriously injured or killed in 20 mph crashes). Still others feel it’s fine for kids 4, 5, or 6 and up to sit in the front seat (kids are safest in the back seat until at least 13).

Fortunately, the more we know, the better decisions we can make. Today we’re going to look at another common set of myths: that you don’t actually need car seats in cabs, whether in taxis or in ride-sharing programs like Lyft or Uber. The truth is that car seats *and seat belts* are just as necessary in taxis as they are in any other car, minivan, SUV, or pickup truck, and we’re going to go into why to use them and which ones work best at which ages and stages.

Are car seats and seat belts required in taxis, cabs, and ride-shares like Uber, Lyft, and carpooling?

Yes! Many people think there’s some kind of grace law or immunity when using hired cars, but the law doesn’t stop applying just because you’re paying someone to drive you around in a yellow (or any other colored) car. People can and do get pulled over for not using car seats or seat belts in taxis and Ubers. It doesn’t happen often, especially in big cities where the police are busier, but it does happen, and it is against the law in many locations, though not in all of them. For example, New York City doesn’t require car seats in yellow cabs (regulated taxis). Technically, they don’t even require seat belt use for passengers under 16. This is insane, because physics doesn’t take a break in a taxicab, but it’s one of many examples of how you need to go beyond the law to protect yourself, because laws in the US (and a number of other countries) aren’t written to benefit citizens, but corporations.

Basically, if you’re in a situation where you’d be expected to use a car seat or seat belt in your own car, you’ll be expected to use one, legally-speaking, in a cab. The driver isn’t going to call the police on you, but there are drivers who will refuse to drive unless you’re buckled up. Depending on their companies and insurance, they might be liable if something happens to you or your kids if you weren’t safely restrained. Alternatively, and more critically, they might not want to be killed by human cannonballs in their back and passenger seats. We’ll go into that next.

What are the risks of not using car seats and seat belts in taxis? Is it really dangerous?

Yes! The risks are identical to those you’d face driving anywhere on your own without placing your children (or yourself) in appropriate restraints. The risk of serious injury (e.g., broken bones, brain damage, death) is 7-8x higher for children who aren’t properly restrained than the risk for children who are.

The dangers aren’t just extended to children. Occupants in the front seats of cars who use lap and shoulder seat belts are 45% (roughly half) as likely to die in an otherwise fatal crash as occupants who don’t. If you’re buckled up in the front seat of a pickup truck, SUV, or van, your odds of death drop by 60%. If you’re in the back seats, buckling up in a car with lap and shoulder belts cuts your risk of death by 58%–this reduction jumps to 75% in vans, pickup trucks, and minivans.

These are huge odds to gamble. I’ve written about people who have made these gambles with tragic results. Taxi deaths happen in big cities–New York, Chicago, Los Angeles–but they also happen in suburbs and small towns every single day of the year. A lifetime of love and potential can never be recovered.

Additionally, the IIHS notes that unbelted occupants (e.g., any teen or adult out of a seat belt or any child out of a car seat) pose severe risks for every occupant in a vehicle, even safely restrained ones. If you’re in a frontal crash (e.g., a head-on collision or a crash into a tree or telephone pole), a belted driver is 137% more likely to die if the passenger behind him or her is unbelted. And in any kind of crash, the risk of every occupant in the vehicle dying increases by 40% with just one unbelted occupant. To put it simply, if anyone isn’t restrained properly, everyone is more likely to die, even if everyone else is safely restrained. And the unrestrained person or child has much, much higher odds of death.

What about on short trips in the city / town / suburbs or at low speeds? Do I still need car seats and seat belts then?

Yes! I cover this in detail in this article on using restraints on short trips. Even if you’re in your neighborhood or subdivision, if your children aren’t restrained or if you aren’t restrained, the same risks apply. It doesn’t take much speed at all to cause serious harm in a vehicle. While a 10 mph crash is the equivalent of being pushed off a 3.3 foot tall desk, a 15 mph crash jumps to the equivalent of being pushed off a 7.5 foot ladder. A 20 mph crash raises the stakes even more quickly to the equivalent of being pushed off the roof of a one story house–a 13.4 foot fall. A 25 mph crash is like being pushed off the roof of a 2 story building–a 20.5 foot fall. And finally, a 30 mph crash is the equivalent of being pushed off the roof of a 3 story building–a 30 foot fall.

When you keep in mind the fact that most cities, suburbs, and towns have at least 25-30 mph speed limits in residential areas and that most people universally exceed speed limits, it’s hopefully clear that it takes very little speed to result in a severe to fatal injury to anyone unrestrained. Or to put it mildly, if you wouldn’t push your child off the roof of a house, why would you allow a taxi driver to by bypassing a car seat or attempting to hold a child in your lap?

What kinds of car seats should I use for my baby / child when taking a taxi?

Now that we know what the law states and, far more importantly, what the laws of physics will do to your loved ones, it’s hopefully clear that it’s necessary for all adults and adolescents to be restrained with seat belts and for all children under 12 to be restrained in appropriate car seats. The final question to address involves what constitutes appropriate car seats. Fortunately, this question is quite easy to answer, and the answers are quite affordable.

Start with rear-facing; it’s most important. Rear-face until kids are at least 4-5, although the longer the better. The Graco Extend2Fit and Clek Fllo are two of many seats that will allow you to rear-face until 50 pounds. From then on, you can either forward-face or move directly to a high-back booster like the Clek Oobr, Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120, or Maxi-Cosi RodiFix; you can use these from when your child is 5 to when s/he is physically capable of passing the 5-step test for seat belt use, which most kids will pass by the ages of 10 to 12. From then on, your children will use seat belts in taxis every time–just like you will.

Keeping kids safe in taxis doesn’t have to be difficult; it simply requires the commitment to safely restrain them (and their parents) every time. Don’t place the next 70 to 80 years of your kids’ lives in the balance of 7-8 potentially fatal minutes unrestrained in a taxi.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

Several years ago, I started this blog to spread the news about the dangers of auto travel and the various ways we could keep our kids and loved ones safe. On one hand, that involves how, where, and what we drive. On the other, it involves how we safely restrain kids in our cars–and I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how the Swedes are the closest adherents to best practices in car seat safety on the planet.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from parents who’ve come across my articles about how Swedish parents use car seats and what Swedes consider best practices in car seat safety involves the actual seats Swedes use and how they compare to the car seats we have available in the United States. Today we’re going to take a look at which safety differences, if any, exist between car seats sold in Sweden and those available in the United States. The answers will likely surprise you.

What’s a typical Swedish car seat (e.g., a convertible seat), and where is it sold?

While there are many examples of Swedish car seats, one of the most popular models sold there today is the Britax Max-Way. Sold throughout Europe, including in the UK, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden, it’s a car seat designed for use with children between 9 kg and 25 kg, or 20lbs-55lbs. Under the Group classification system, this makes it a Group 1 & 2, or 1/2 seat. Roughly speaking, it will fit kids between 9 months and 6 years of age. Although it looks like a convertible seat, it only rear-faces. Like many US seats, it’s designed to be smaller to offer more leg room, it can be installed with 3-point seat belts or 2-point lap belts in addition to ISOFIX (LATCH), it includes side wings for side impact protection, a multi-position recline, an adjustable headrest, and a no-rethread harness. Like most American seats, you can remove the padding to wash it or simply  clean it with a handheld vacuum.

The installation manual is here.

Which safety features does the Max-Way have that an American car seat would not?

First of all, the Max-Way can rear-face longer than any American seat available as of 2017. The leading US seats–the Clek Fllo, the Clek Foonf, the Diono Rainier, the Graco Extend2Fit, the Graco Extend2Fit 3-in-1, the Graco 4Ever Extend2Fit, the Nuna Rava, the Safety 1st Advance EX 65 Air+, and the Safety 1st Grow and Go EX Air–all top out at 50 pounds. At 55 pounds, the Max-Way, which has been out for years, blows all of them away.

Second, the Max-Way includes a foot prop and a pair of lower rear-facing tethers to stabilize the seat beyond the seat belt. The foot prop is basically a monopod that extends toward the front of the vehicle and braces against the vehicle floor while being additionally stabilized with tethers. The foot prop is designed to reduce downward (forward) rotation of the car seat after a frontal collision. The separate rear-facing tethers connect to anchors toward the front of the vehicle to prevent rebound (upward rotation) in the car seat after a frontal collision.

In the US, rear-facing tethering is available on select US seats, but it’s very, very rare. Anti-rebound bars, which serve the same function as foot props, are somewhat more common. It’s important to note, however, that while the Max-Way includes both features, there are a number of seats sold in Sweden that don’t feature or require neither foot props nor rear tethers while passing the same crash standards and being rated to the same weight limits. In other words, they’re beneficial features, but car seats can be safe without them.

Do the differences between a seat like the Max-Way and an American seat explain the greater safety of Swedish children?

Actually, no. The Swedes themselves are quite clear on this; they credit their low child death rates to a combination of Vision Zero principles–safer driving habits, safer vehicles, and much, much safer infrastructure. Safer driving habits generally means following the speed limit and driving as little as possible (roughly half as many miles as Americans per year). Safer vehicles simply means vehicles with ESC and side airbags (which are available in the US used market for well under $5,000). And safer infrastructure means replacing undivided roads with divided ones while limiting speeds to survivable limits throughout the road network.

The car seats themselves aren’t particularly significant; what’s significant with respect to children are the use of best practices in transporting them. In a nutshell, that means rear-facing them until at least 4 or 5 and keeping them boostered until 10 to 12. Between those two factors, the bigger one by far is rear-facing.

But I’ve always heard that Swedish seats are tougher / unique / just “better” / not comparable to US seats

There are a lot of people who, for some reason, enjoy cultivating an aura of mysticism about Swedish car seat usage, particularly in the United States. I’m not sure why, as the goal should be to share knowledge to help make all children safer, not to make it seem like best practices are magical, unattainable things. Whatever the reasoning behind this line of thinking, it’s also incorrect from a factual perspective. Swedish car seats aren’t magically different from car seats available in most other parts of the world with the notable exception of how they can be used to rear-face longer. They aren’t exclusively available in Sweden; they can be bought throughout Europe. In fact, most car seats used in Sweden aren’t even made in Sweden. The Max-Way, for example, is made in the UK. Whenever you hear someone tell you or anyone else that Swedish seats simply aren’t comparable to US ones, that person is uninformed and spreading unhelpful misinformation, to put it mildly. Feel free to redirect them here.

What’s an American equivalent of a Swedish convertible car seat like the Britax Max-Way?

While there isn’t a direct American version of any given Swedish car seat, you can get the core safety feature of the Max-Way–the ability to extended rear-face in a compact, convertible car-seat-shaped package–through any seat in the US that will let you rear-face to 50 pounds. That’s not as long as the Max-Way, but it’s long enough to get almost all children to 4 and a great many to 5 and beyond depending on height. Personally, my two favorite 50-pound rear-facing convertibles are the Clek Fllo and the Graco Extend2Fit. The Fllo is the narrowest 50-pounder on the market, and is the seat to get if you need as many 3 across car seat options as possible. It also includes an anti-rebound bar, which very few US car seats do. As noted above, an anti-rebound bar serves the same function as a foot prop.

The Extend2Fit, on the other hand, is one of the cheapest 50-pound seats you can currently buy. Using either to its limits will give you most of the safety benefits of the Max-Way, which, again, are primarily related to the extent to which it allows you to rear-face.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Send me an email at carcrashdetective [at] gmail [dot] com.