Child Safety Seats: Is Yours Safe?

On Monday, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a recall for five separate types of child safety seats. The car seats included are:

– Baby Trend – Trendz Fastback models bought between October 1, 2011 – July 31, 2013. There is an issue with the harness buckle which makes it hard, or even impossible, to unlatch.

– Evenflo – This recall includes some of Evenflo’s Momentum, Chase, Maestro, Symphony, Snugli, Titan, SureRide and SecureKid models. The affected seats have model number prefixes of 306, 308, 310, 329, 345, 346, 371 or 385. Not all of these individual models are included and each seat must be inspected on a separate basis. There is a problem with the latching harness which may not allow a child to get out safely in the case of an emergency.

– Graco – In June 2013, Graco began manufacturing a safer and more effective harness buckle which was to replace older models. While there have been no reported injuries with the old buckles, Graco says this new model will hopefully prevent the difficulties that have been a problem in the past. To find out if your child seat qualifies, Graco suggests you look on this page for more information : https://secure.gracobucklerecall.com/Recall2014

– Combi – Combi Coccoro Child Restaint–Model 8220–Manufacture Dates: January 6, 2009- December 5, 2012, Combi Zeus Turn Child Restraint–Model 8815–Manufacture Dates: July 15, 2007- March 25, 2009, Combi Zeus 360 Child Restraint–Model 8836–Manufacture Dates: February 25, 2009- May 24, 2012. This seat does not meet federal regulations for safety in the amount of pressure that the harness can withstand in the case of a vehicular accident.

– Orbit – Orbit G2 car seat base, only model numbers ORB822000 manufactured from March 20 through July 20, 2013, with batch numbers A0840, A0860, or A0880 are affected. The strong arm knob which is used to secure the child seat can default and cause the seat to come loose and cause harm to the child.

A child safety seat can be recalled at any time and for a variety of reasons. To ensure that your child’s seat is up to the standards set forth by the NHTSA, check out the website below. There you can register your child’s car seat and be alerted anytime a recall is issued for that specific seat.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/