The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is making it easier for parent and child caregivers to choose the safest booster seats that keep kids safe in automobiles. The Institutes rates 9 belt-positioning boosters as Best Bets and 6 as Good Bets out of 60 models. Eleven are not recommended at all.
The purpose of a booster seat is to elevate a child or even a small person so that the seat belt fits properly. Ideally, the lap belt will fit flat across a child’s upper thigh and not across the abdomen which is likely to cause injury in an accident. The shoulder belt should cross snugly over the middle of a child or an adult’s shoulder. That is the best position to be in case there is a crash.
The Institute used crash test dummies to assess the reliability of the boosters in both the lap and shoulder area and cover almost all models currently sold in the U.S. Look for the Combi Dakota backless with clip, Recaro Young Sport highback (combination seat), Recaro Vivo highback, Maxi-Cosi Rodi XR dual-use highback, Evenflo Big Kid Amp backless with clip, Eddie Bauer Auto Booster dual-use highback, Cosco Juvenile Pronto dual-use highback, Britax Frontier highback (combination seat), and Clek Oobr dual-use highback. Look at all of the ratings on the IIHS Web site.
Those that are not recommended include the Harmony Secure Comfort Deluze backless with clip, Combi Kobuck duel-use highback, Evenflo Express highback, Eddie Bauer Deluxe highback, and Evenflo Sightseer highback. There are more on the list that are not recommended.
Source Article: http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2010/01/18/462161.html
