Back-seat safety in cars is stuck in the '90s.
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| © Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. IIHS/Brian Cooley/Roadshow |
By Brian Cooley, CNET
Don't sit in the back! You may think the back seat of a car is a safe
cocoon, away from the windshield and dashboard, but that was decades
ago. Today, the back seat is a relative backwater when it comes to
safety tech -- and you might want to think twice before sitting back
there.
- A lack of the forward airbags that front seat passengers enjoy, though they are in development.
- Fewer side curtain airbags to protect you from bouncing off hard surfaces.
And then there's the front seat passenger problem: Audi recently had a $125 million judgement entered against it for
front seat backs that collapse in a rear end collision, which can send a
front passenger backwards and head first into a rear seat passenger.
And such a risk is not unique to Audi.
What about kids in the back seat?
Kids in rear car seats are a
different matter. Car seats are designed to mitigate some of the risks
in the back and are typically safer than a kid facing a front airbag
that deploys with far too much force to protect them. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends use of rear-facing child seat up to the maximum size of child the seat is designed for, not to an arbitrary age.
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| © Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. Guess who's coming to visit? The front seat passenger, into your face and chest in a rear-end collision. Front seat backs don't typically hold up in those scenarios. CBS News/Brian Cooley/Roadshow |
Unlike most other car safety tech, child seats laws vary by state,
an odd patchwork compared to most other car safety standards that are
dictated by federal law. That can give parents pause to wonder if their
state dictates best practices, but you should know and follow the laws
in your state as a minimum.
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