Evenflo is under fire for claims that their car booster seats are safe as a “horrific” ProPublica video investigation reveals a child-safety test dummy getting thrown violently during a side-crash test.
Evenflo was marketing the seats as “safe” for children over 30 pounds but the Academy of American Pediatrics has maintained that children should stay in harness restraints as long as possible and not switch to a booster seat until 40 pounds. A leading doctor who authors car seat recommendations for the AAP called the investigation’s video “horrific” and said there is no way he would put any small child in the seats.
Evenflo says the company’s complied with all federal safety regulations and blamed any injuries or deaths on the severity of the crashes. One 5-year-old child who was 37 pounds in 2016 was thrown from her Evenflo booster seat and internally decapitated. She now can only breathe with a ventilator.
Records reveal Evenflo considers a side-crash test a failure ONLY “if the dummy comes completely out of the seat or if the seat breaks.”
Evenflo, reluctantly, changed their own booster seat recommendations to 40 pounds but never contacted customers about the change. ProPublica found the 30 pound recommendation on Evenflo booster seats currently sold in retailers nationwide.
