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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says the child seats may put kids at increased risk of "submarining"
Author of the article:David Booth Publishing date: Feb 01, 2022•February 1, 2022•2 minute read• Join the conversation
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The U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety just announced the removal of two popular child booster seats — the BubbleBum and the Hiccapop UberBoost — from its vaunted Best Bets recommendations list.
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Booster seats, for those without kids, are for children who have outgrown harness-equipped child restraints, the booster meant to elevate the child so that the shoulder belt lies snugly across the center of the shoulder — not across the neck or face or slipping off the shoulder — while the lap belt lies flat across the upper thighs and not on the abdomen. The idea is to elevate the child’s body until it is in the right position for optimum seat belt safety.
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“These two booster seats met our criteria for a Best Bet designation because they provide good belt fit when measured on a static dummy,” says Jessica Jermakian, IIHS vice president of vehicle research. “However, our new research points to a greater risk that a child could slide under the lap belt when using a low-stiffness inflatable booster compared to a traditional one with a stiffer base. Because IIHS considers this a serious issue, we are withdrawing the Best Bet label for these seats while we continue to investigate.”
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The IIHS calls this slipping-under “submarining,” and it can cause abdominal or spinal injuries. Ironically, the IIHS says these submarining injuries are one of the main reasons the IIHS recommends that children use boosters in the first place.
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The problem seems to stem from their inflatability. Both companies use inflatable cushions whose height can be customized to precisely fit its occupants to their perfect seat height, one of the reasons they initially garnered the coveted Best Bet awards. According to the IIHS’ most recent computer modeling, however, neither booster is stiff enough — even though the BubbleBum supplements air pressure with foam inside its lower bladder — to prevent a typical six-year-old from submarining under the lap belt.
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Because of the new information, IIHS has removed both booster seats from its ratings and, indeed, according to the IIHS, all inflatable boosters may need to be retested. “At this point, we don’t have enough information to understand how we should be rating inflatable boosters, so for now they will be unrated,” Jermakian says. “Once we know more, we may need to update our evaluation criteria to add characteristics beyond belt fit.” It’s worth noting that the BubbleBum booster seat had been an IIHS Best Bet for eight years in a row prior to this new research.
Driving looked into where the BubbleBum and Hiccapop boosters were sold in Canada and could find few direct outlets. The BubbleBum, for instance, is listed on Bed, Bath & Beyond’s website, but with a note that says the product is currently unavailable; while the UberBoost had no Canadian outlets. That said, both were available on Amazon and eBay with sellers more than happy to ship them across the border.
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