Quote:
Originally posted by Bring_Back_Shantz@Oct 3 2005, 04:58 PM
nfotiu,
You want a specific reason it is safer in a backseat than the passenger seat other than the airbag?
Simple, distance from impact. If a child seat is in the back (preferably in the middle), no matter where the car is struck, the car hitting you must penetrate a few feet into the car befor it hits the kid in the seat. If the kid is in the front seat, any head on collision, or one on the front passenger quarter of the car has a pretty good chance of impacting directly with the seat, hence a lot more dangerous.
Just this weekend, a friend of mine got hit making a left turn (one of the most common maneuvers being made while being struck, and also one that usually results in a passenger side door impact) and they got hit on the front quarter panel, his girfriend was riding shotgun, and luckily was alright but if the car had hit just a foot or two to the left she likely could have been badly injured. Had she been in the middle of the backseat, a close call could have been changed into a "lucky you were in the backseat" Same applies to a baby seat.
|
I can buy the center is safer argument almost more than the front/back argument. I think it would be unlikely with the way cars are designed these days (my car crash tests very well, btw), that a car could encroach the passenger seat in a front end collision in residential traffic.
But the center argument suggests that 2 child families should all buy cars with 3rd row seating. It is probably not as safe for anyone to ride anywhere but the center middle in a car.