Seventeen States Urge U.S. Agency to Set Side Impact Standards for Child Car Seats

Cars pass along 15th Street in the central District of Columbia amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Washington, United States, August 11, 2020. REUTERS / Tom Brenner

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) – Attorneys general for 17 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday urged the United States’ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to adopt long-delayed side impact standards for car seats for children.

Congress asked the agency to set the standards two decades ago. In a letter, the states, led by New York and Connecticut, also urged the U.S. auto safety regulator to require that all car seat labels include instructions that every child should stay in a car seat until. that it exceeds the maximum height or weight standards set by the NHTSA.

“Due to NHTSA’s inaction, there are currently no government standards for side impact testing in the United States for any child restraint system,” state attorneys general wrote.

When asked about its reaction to the letter, NHTSA did not immediately comment.

The agency “has a responsibility to adopt clear safety standards for child car seats and today we are making it clear that not taking action is unacceptable,” New York Attorney General Letitia said. James.

Most manufacturers perform their own side impact tests.

In 2000, Congress asked NHTSA to begin drafting rules to improve “the safety of child restraints, including minimizing head injuries from side crashes,” but the agency did not published new rules. In 2012, Congress gave NHTSA two years to adopt a final rule “to improve the protection of children in child restraint systems in side crashes.”

A final rule for side impact standards has still not been published. President Joe Biden’s administration has said in a document that it expects it to be finalized before the end of this year.

The agency proposed last September to revise recommendations to increase the number of children 1 year and younger who are carried in rear-facing car seats.

The NHTSA proposed recommending that all children 26.5 pounds (12 kg) or less be carried in rear-facing car seats rather than the existing recommendation for children weighing 20 pounds (9 kg) or less.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham and Chizu Nomiyama

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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