How to Choose the Safest Car Seat for Your Child

We evaluate car seats by testing them on a seat cushion that better represents the dimensions and firmness of the seats in current vehicles rather than the flatter “test bench” equipment required by the government. 

We contract with an outside lab to conduct simulated 35-mph frontal crashes, evaluating a seat’s potential for providing an additional margin of safety beyond the federal standard. We also test with the addition of a simulated front seatback surface that resembles the environment of a real vehicle. (Government tests, by comparison, are done at 30 mph and don’t include a simulated seatback.)

CR’s certified child passenger safety technicians install each seat in all unique rear-seat positions of five vehicle types. We look at how easy it is to install in each allowable orientation and using LATCH anchors and a vehicle’s seat belt.

At our Auto Test Center, CR’s certified child passenger safety technicians evaluate how easy each seat is to use. This includes, among other factors, the clarity of instructions, installation, adjusting the harness, and the seat’s weight.

Our rear-facing crash-test results showed that a dummy representing a 12-month-old child was protected from striking its head against the simulated front seatback in 99 percent of CR’s tested convertible and all-in-one models. By contrast, when using the same-sized dummy in infant seats, 57 percent of the seats allowed head contact. Research shows that when a child suffers a serious injury in a crash, it’s frequently because of head contact with an interior component, such as the front seatback.