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Consumer Reports Takes Blame for Infant Seat Test Error

Magazine Tried to "Raise the Bar" but Erred in Test Design

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 21, 2007

Infant Seats • Hazards of Rent-A-Car Child Safety Seats • Feds Revise Child Safety Seat Ratings • Study Warns of Dangerous Chemicals in Child Car Seats • Consumer Reports Takes Blame for Infant Seat Test Error • Use of Booster Seats Increasing • NHTSA Will Write New Child Safety Seat Rules • Consumer Reports Admits Errors in Its Infant Car Seat Tests • Infant Fatalities Illustrate Car Seats' Shortcomings • Child Car Seats Not Up to the Challenge • Parents Still Clueless About Child Safety Seats • NHTSA Releases 2006 Child Safety Seat Ratings • Child Safety Seats Reduce Risk of Death in Crashes More Than Seat Belts Alone • Kids Getting Too Fat For Safety Seats, Study Finds • NHTSA Proposes New Child Safety Seat Rules • Children Not Using Safety Seats, NHTSA Study Finds --- • Consumer Complaints • Auto Safety News

Consumer Reports is taking the blame for its report about infant car seats after a consultant hired by the consumer advocate to investigate the story reported that a major misunderstanding between the magazine and the lab that conducted the test resulted in the error.

A consultants' review concludes that the magazine set out to raise the bar for car-seat safety, but stumbled instead into methodological errors with misleading results.

The earlier report had concluded that most infant seats "failed disastrously" but the conclusion was withdrawn when Consumer Reports learned its side-impact tests had simulated speeds twice as fast as it intended.

The error prompted criticism from the manufacturers involved and confusion among readers, especially parents of young children.

"We made a mistake, but we're committed to correcting it, preventing similar ones and most importantly continuing to serve the consumer interest," said Jim Guest, president of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports.

"We've also not lost sight of our original goal and intend to work with leading experts to develop more realistic crash simulations, improve usability, and remind parents to keep children safely restrained."

According to the report, Consumer Reports wanted to test the effect of a 38 mph side impact on children in car seats because that is how cars themselves are tested by federal regulators.

When a 38 mph crash occurs, much of the momentum of the striking car is absorbed by the struck car which moves away from the crash at about half the impact speed. The simulation tested the car seats as if they moved away from the crash at 38 mph which would have been the result of a much more violent crash, the investigation concluded.

Consumer Reports then reported that as the result of a 38 mph test only two of 12 seats tested were worth buying.

The experts brought in by Consumer Reports were Kennerly H. Digges, former director of vehicle safety research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Brian O'Neill, former president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

They reported that the 38 mph problem persisted throughout the process because the test was devised with little input from outside consultants. Consumer Reports responded that the decision reflected "the organization's long-standing policy of limiting contact with government and industry to avoid compromising the independence of its judgment."

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