For parents, a sometimes-confusing purchase just got easier. A new five-star government rating system will grade child-safety seats on ease of installation. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have released ratings for 78 child-safety seats currently available.

“Even the safest car seat can’t protect a child if it isn’t installed correctly,” Peters says. “These new star ratings arm parents with the best information and challenge manufacturers to make car seats that are easier for parents to use.”

NHTSA says seven out of 10 child-safety seats are either the wrong size for the child or are seriously misused, reducing their effectiveness in a crash. When properly used, child-restraint systems reduce fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers in passenger cars. In light trucks, fatal injuries are reduced by 58 percent for infants and 59 percent for toddlers.

The seats are awarded an overall rating as well as individual ratings in four categories: securing the child, vehicle-installation features, labeling and instructions. Five stars represent the highest rating and one star signifies the lowest. The rating system doesn’t measure how effective a seat is in protecting a child in the event of a crash, but rather compares how easy one seat is to use over another.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will continue to rate new models as they are introduced.

For a complete list of the new rankings, visit nhtsa.gov.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under 0-2, Baby Page, Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.