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Thursday, January 18, 2007

Baby Chair Research Mistake


Consumer Reports withdraws its recent claim that most infant car seats failed the magazine's front- and side-crash tests.


“Our (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) initial review of the Consumer Reports testing procedures showed a significant error in the manner in which it conducted and reported on its side-impact tests. The organization’s data show its side-impact tests were actually conducted under conditions that would represent being struck in excess of 70 mph, twice as fast as the group claimed. When NHTSA tested the same child seats in conditions representing the 38.5 mph conditions claimed by Consumer Reports, the seats stayed in their bases as they should, instead of failing dramatically.”
You've got one job, to smash cars with baby seats in them and report the results!
Is it not possible to visualize the difference between a 70 mph smash versus a 38 mph smash? My guess is that by the time the report was ready to be presented none of the white lab coat scientists were allowed to be seen. It was show time!

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