Baby travel safety

It was the third recall on children’s car seats in about a week. On Friday, Aug. 31, the Dorel Juvenile Group, the nation’s biggest manufacturer of child car seats, announced a recall of 19 car seat models under the brand names Cosco, Eddie Bauer, Safety 1st, Alpha Elite and Alpha Sport. The news release said that the reason for the recall was a harness that had a tendency to slip.

The loosened harness would then allow excess forward movement of the head in the event of a crash, which could cause serious injury.

The company clarified that the voluntary recall was the result of complaints coming from Canada where parents found it difficult to maintain the tension in the harness soon after they buckled a child in a seat. Dorel Juvenile decided to inform the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about its intention to recall the seats.

Transport Canada issued the recall order that affects 314,433 units. In their tests, Transport Canada determined that the harness system appeared to loosen even with only minimal force applied. The center front adjuster was found to have a minimal grip on the strap webbing thus making it easy for the harness to loosen. Dorel will provide to all known owners a replacement strap which they will purchase from a different supplier. The new strap will be made of knit, no longer woven, material.

A week earlier on Thursday, Aug. 23, two companies announced recalls on child-car-seat products. Graco Children’s Products recalled over 276,000 ComfortSport convertible harness car seats, while Britax Child Safety Inc. recalled its Decathlon child restraints.

Graco said an anchor belt did not follow the prescribed path and was misrouted during assembly. The error would allow the car seat a greater angle of movement, 70 degrees backward, in a crash thus increasing the chances of injury. Graco advised that parents should avoid using the child car seats in the rear-facing position until the problem has been resolved.

The Britax recall involves harness adjuster straps that may not fasten properly if pulled from the wrong angle. If it is pulled in a straight horizontal line from the seat, there will be no problem. But pulling from a side angle may cause a bezel to separate from the child restraint. The adjuster can then get dislodged from its position in the shell housing, making it difficult to restrain the child. Britax will provide repair kits to the known owners of the seats.

In all of these recalls, no injuries have been reported that arise from the defects.