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Warning: Fake and Unsafe Products
Many fake and unsafe products are being sold, especially online. These products put children’s lives at risk because they are not safe to use in a crash.
Car crashes produce huge forces. A 30-mile-per-hour crash creates the same amount of force as a fall from a 3-story building. Safety seats and booster seats are carefully designed to protect children from this force. They meet all federal safety standards, including crash protection, flammability, and labeling.
CNN covered this astonishing trend in December, posting a side by side crash test of a fake and actual car seat to demonstrate their concerns.
A concerned grandmother, who was looking for safety seats for visiting grandchildren from ages 1 to 6 reached out to our Safe Ride Helpline. She led us to Carorld where we found unsafe “safety harnesses” for sale at $26!! We reported this danger to the federal government. The U.S. Dept. of Commerce has put a response in motion. Meanwhile, here is their post to complement our flyers, available from Helpful Handouts (link). Be careful; fakes and counterfeits are taking in the unwary. We are here to help!! Report fakes!!
Another Web site is showing the same products that do not meet U.S. crash standards for safety seats. They state the products are for ages 3-12. But now, they state that the products do NOT meet U.S. standards. We believe that they are afraid of U.S. government action; however, there is no reason to believe that these products meet the safety standards of any country. We believe this note shows that we have them on the run! Support the campaign; avoid any site with fake seats, products that do not meet safety standards, or that offer “products meeting U.S. safety standards at very low prices. All of them will cheat your child of safety! Report to NHTSA and the U.S. Dept of Commerce.
Should Adults Use Add-Ons to Adjust Safety Belt Positioning? There are products on the market which claim to improve belt fit for pregnant women. With data from a study using pictograms, researchers found that only 3.5% of North American women were wearing their safety belts correctly during pregnancy. We want to share the response we received with its picture of a real crash-test dummy.
See how child passenger safety fits into the Harvard Business Review article on how donors should assess programs and conversely, how advocates can design booster law campaigns & funding requests. http://www.