Car Seat History

On our FaceBook page this week, we posted a “Short History of Car Seats“. Car Seat history is fairly short and completely fascinating. Following is a recap of our post.

Car Seat History:

1940s – The first car seat of sorts is designed to help lift children up so they can see out the window and to hopefully help contain them to one spot in the car.

1962 – Two amazing men design a car seat with safety as the goal, including a rear facing one with V harness strap and metal shell.

1968 – Auto manufacturers design first child restraints for crash protection. Ford comes up with the Tot-Guard and General Motors has the Love Seat for Toddlers.

1971 – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) adopts the first federal standards, FMVSS213. At this time, standards did not include a crash test but did include requirement of a seatbelt to hold the car seat into the vehicle and a harness to hold the child in the seat.

1979 – Tennessee has first child restraint law.

1981 – A more strict version of FMVSS213 goes into effect including specifics for weight and the direction the seat is facing. Crash test requirements are also put into effect.

1985 – All states now have a child restraint law of some sort.

1997 – NHTSA implements first training program to certify Child Passenger Safety Technicians and Instructors.

2009 – 26% of Caucasions, 45% of African Americans, and 46% of Hispanic children are still not buckled up in car seats.

For nine years, car seats went unregulated. That is, if you count when they first began being designed for safety. Therefore, we can conclude innovation always comes before regulation.

Car seat history is fascinating and important and so are your babies.