100 Kids Killed In Minor Shunts By Hidden Danger Of Front Seat Failure Investigation Finds

A Fox31 Denver Special Investigation by Problem Solvers has discovered a hidden danger about the car you could be driving and you are not aware of it. Should you be unlucky enough to be in an accident and even in a minor shunt they found that driver and passenger seats are breaking and then striking children in the back with the full weight and force of the seat and its occupant.

As parents, you’re told the safest place for your child is in a car seat in the back. But what you don’t know about your front seats could seriously injure or kill them. The FOX31 Denver Problem Solvers have uncovered 100 cases in which children across the country have died because of seat back failure. According to the Center for Auto Safety, 898 children have been killed in rear-end collisions in the past 15 years, all of them sitting in the back seat. The Problem Solvers dug up 100 lawsuits, blaming those deaths on seat back failures. Crash test video shows what happens when a front seat breaks. The driver or passenger is thrust into the back, often delivering a fatal blow to the child behind him or her. Seat back failure has also caused hundreds of catastrophic injuries, to the people seated in the front. “It’s a bigger problem than most people think,” said Jim Gilbert of the Gilbert Law group in Arvada.

 

The Problem Solvers found documented cases of seat back failure in some of the most popular vehicles on the road, including Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, KIA, Plymouth, Pontiac, Mercury, Jeep, Dodge, Saturn, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, Land Rover, Cadillac, BMW and Audi. “Typically, these seats contain hidden dangers that you only discover when it’s too late,” Gilbert said. He blames the problem on an archaic federal safety standard used to test seats. “These safety standards, almost all of them have been in effect since 1971," he said. The test is simple: A winch slowly pulls the seat back. If it doesn’t break, it’s good to go. Gilbert showed how a $5 lawn chair easily passed the test,. Using a seat that broke in a crash where the driver was paralyzed, Gilbert and his team of engineers reconfigured the design by adding a second stiffener or recliner on the right side. And when Gilbert put the new seat to the test, “We found a significant increase in the strength of that seat. Safe for you, safe for your child in the back," he said. “NHTSA has considered changes to its seating standards for years … (but) … rear-impact crashes account for roughly 3 percent of all traffic fatalities; fatal crashes in which seat failure occurs … are even less common. … The agency is required to perform cost-benefit analysis … for any regulatory change we would propose," the NHSA said in a statement. “When you do a cost benefit analysis like that and say, well only 100 people died, that's still 100 people," Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette said. DeGette said the investigation and recent stories about seat back failure have opened her eyes. She said if the NHTSA fails to take action, Congress will. “I will make sure that we investigate fully the condition of these cars, the condition of these seats, and that we hold NHTSA and the rest of these government agencies accountable," she said. Until automakers start making stronger front seats or the NHTSA changes the testing standards, experts recommend placing a car seat in the middle, so if the front seat breaks, it doesn’t hit the child. If there are two children in car seats, put the second seat behind the person in the family who weighs the least.

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