Child safety seats, or booster seats, are one of the best ways to prevent personal injury or wrongful death in young children that are involved in car accidents.  Knowing which ones to use can be the difference in saving your child’s life in a car crash.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety wants to make it easier for you if you need to choose a booster seat.  That’s why the IIHS ranked the safest booster seats because if you don’t know which seats are the best, you may accidentally pick one that can lead to catastrophic injury for your child.

“Parents can’t tell a good booster from a bad one just by comparing design features and price,” Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research.

Our firm’s San Diego personal injury lawyers know the importance of keeping all passengers in cars safe in car accidents no matter their age.  Children’s injuries are even more devastating because the smaller bodies children have can’t absorb as much trauma.  A car accident can cause so many different life altering and life threatening injuries, so be sure you pick the right seat to help prevent them.

Booster seats come in two main styles, highback and backless.  There are some highbacks called dual-use that become backless if you remove the back.  Boosters like that get two different ratings: one for each mode.

Of the 60 seats evaluated by the IIHS, nine of them were considered “best bets”:

• Combi Dakota (backless with clip)
• Recaro Young Sport highback (combo 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 (combination highback)
• Clek Oobr (dual-use highback)

There unfortunately can’t be bests without worsts.  The IIHS has recommended that parents and consumers stay away from these models because of their poor marks after evaluation:

• Harmony Secure Comfort Deluxe (backless with clip)
• Combi Kobuk (dual-use highback)
• Evenflo Express (combination highback)
• Eddie Bauer Deluxe Highback (combination highback)
• Evenflo Sightseer (highback)
• 3-in-1 Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite
• 3-in-1 Eddie Bauer Deluxe
• Safety 1st All-in-One
• Alpha Omega Luxe Echelon

A complete ratings list is available at the IIHS’s website to help you pick out the right booster seat to prevent personal injury to your child.

Our San Diego personal injury lawyers want consumers to pick the best products for their child passengers because one bad injury in a car accident at a young age can lead to problems in their teenage, middle age and old age.

Please contact us for a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in San Diego at (800) 655-6585.  We speak both English and Spanish.  Click here and you may also submit your case for a Free Review.  No fee if no recovery.

About Michael Pines

Michael Pines is a former insurance company attorney who specializes in car accident injury. While he was an insurance attorney, he learned from behind the scenes on how insurance companies work and how they decided to pay injured people. Now that he works against insurance companies, Michael's inside knowledge has resulted in significant benefits to his clients injured in car accidents.