Kids sitting in rear seats are vulnerable in certain car crashes

autoblog.com

One of the nation's top automotive safety watchdogs is calling on federal regulators to adopt new measures that better protect children during car crashes.

The Center for Auto Safety says regulators should issue updated guidance to parents and caregivers on the safest possible places for children to sit in the rear row. Citing a half-century's worth of studies, the organization says the safest place for children to sit is behind an unoccupied seat.

In a petition field Wednesday, the organization asks the government to relay that advisory to parents and caregivers. Federal authorities currently "encourage parents to place their children in the rear seats of passenger cars without providing parents any recommendation on where in the rear seat the child should be placed," Clarence Ditlow, executive director of CAS, wrote. "While the rear seat is the safest location for a child, it is safer still if the child is placed behind an unoccupied front seat or behind the lightest front-seat occupant."

The reasons for that guidance are grim. Studies and real-life evidence have shown the seatbacks of front-seat occupants are prone to collapsing during rear-impact crashes. Above 30 miles per hour, those seatbacks are capable of crushing children who occupy the rear row.