Saturday, June 16, 2007

Bumpity bump!

So, my sis, the kids and I headed to Newport today for beach trip #3. We were *almost* there, and I mean literally ALMOST at the end of the 55 freeway, comPLETEly stopped in traffic and BOOM!! We got rear-ended!!!!!!!! What the??!??!?!? Scared the HECK outta me!!! I motion to the dude to pull over and we both get out. I swear, I was expecting the whole back end to be pushed in, but there was no visible damage, surprisingly! He was driving a Suburban and all that you could see on his car was the license plate had been dented in where it hit our tow hitch thingy. This guy was so very apologetic and instantly handed over his driver's license and insurance card. He just kept pleading with me not to call the cops because he'd get a ticket - DUH! I wrote down all his info and we continued on to the beach. Matt called our insurance company and took care of everything as soon as we got home.

Now I have another dilemma. We were in a minor accident back in March and we had all three carseats replaced because according to Graco's website (which our previous carseats were), if one of their seats is in ANY accident, it should be replaced. Our insurance company paid for the three replacement carseats and we purchased Sunshine Radian 65s for all three kids. I LOVE their carseats!! But now that we've been in another accident, do I replace these carseats too?? I mean, they are made of steel, seriously! Their website also says to discontinue use of the carseat if it has been involved in an accident. I don't want to be nit picky, but I also don't want to compromise my children's safety in any way. What to do, what to do??? Hmmm....

3 comments:

Trenda said...

When our Camry was totaled, we looked on the internet and found government safety regulations for replacing car seats if they were in a car accident. The following is coppied from the web page. . . http://www.800bucklup.org/parent/replacing%20CSS%20after%20crash.html:

A crash is minor-and the child seat involved in it is safe for reuse-if it meets ALL of the following criteria:

A visual inspection of the child safety seat, including inspection under any easily movable seat padding, does not reveal any cracks or deformation that might have been caused by the crash;
The vehicle in which the child safety seat was installed was capable of being driven from the crash scene;
The vehicle door nearest the child safety seat was undamaged;
There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants; and
The air bags (if any) did not deploy.

Of course Graco is going to say you need to get a new car seat . . . that's how they make more money! Needless to say, I wouldn't worry about it.

Lindsay said...

Thanks for the info. As far as I know, in my research, Britax is the only company that actually uses these guidelines for replacing a seat that's been in an accident. I'm just worried about the possible damage done where we CAN'T see, where the LATCH belts are connected.

Lindsay said...

Oh, and I also think it makes a difference if the child was actually IN the seat when the accident happened, which all three were both times.