Minor car accident. Do I need new carseats?

[Anonymous]

My car got rear ended today. My huge SUV has some damage, but the Camry that hit me had a pretty good amount of damage. Do I need new carseats? Will his insurer pay for them? I sure don't feel like paying for three new carseats but if we need them, we'll get them. What's the group wisdom on this topic?

[Anonymous]

I was rear-ended earlier this year and my car was totaled because the air bag went off. My insurance agent told me to buy a new one because you can't tell if there might be hidden stress fractures or something like that in the car seat. I just bought the same one, submitted the receipt to my insurance, and they sent me a check. The person who hit me's insurance then reimbursed my insurance.

[Anonymous]

NHTSA Position

NHTSA recommends that child safety seats be replaced following a moderate or severe crash in order to ensure a continued high level of crash protection for child passengers.

NHTSA recommends that child safety seats do not automatically need to be replaced following a minor crash.

Minor crashes are those that meet ALL of the following criteria:

The vehicle was able to be driven away from the crash site;

The vehicle door nearest the safety seat was undamaged;

There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants;

The air bags (if present) did not deploy; AND

There is no visible damage to the safety seat

Clarifying the need for child seat replacement will reduce the number of children unnecessarily riding without a child safety seat while a replacement seat is being acquired, and the number of children who will have to ride without a child seat if a seat were discarded and not replaced. The clarification will also reduce the financial burden of unnecessary replacement.


http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/childps/childrestraints/reuse/restraintreuse.htm

[Anonymous]

Yes, the integrity of the seat has been comprimised. If they give you any push back jsut say woudl you put your kid int eh car seat? If they say yes, then say, sorry, I value my child's safety too much, here is the reciept.

[Anonymous]

I was rear ended by a garbage truck last year and looked into this. Remarkably, my car remarkable had very little damage - minor dents and scrapes on the bumper, broken bracket on bumper - but it was a big garbage truck that really rammed into me. Here's what I found http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/childps/childrestraints/reuse/restraintreuse.htm

[Anonymous]

When I was rear ended it was recommended that I replace the car seat. Our insurance company would not reimburse us. I talked with our Pediatrician about it and she said that although neither the door nearest the seat nor the air bags were activated that you would not want to find out later in a worse accident that the car seat had been compromised. Basically is your child's safety worth the $$ to replace the seat or are you feeling lucky. We decided to purchase a new seat and it was out of pocket (neither insurance company would pay.) I much prefered to know that the seat was new and safe. It was also recommended that when we got rid of the old seat that we cut the harness into pieces so someone else wouldn't use it if we left it curbside.

[Anonymous]

We had a carseat tech come to one of my mom's groups. His stance was this:

If the accident caused any injury in any way to any passenger, replace the carseat.
If the seatbelt of the adult passenger left any kind of red mark or injury, replace the seat.
He also said that you need to always tell the insurance company that there was a carseat in the car the first time you talk to them (even if you don't plan on replacing it at that time). He said that 95% of insurance companies will pay the couple hundred dollars to replace a seat. If the refuse to replace it and it causes damage later they would be in a much worse position.
He also said that if you are replacing an infant seat and it's almost time to move onto a convertible, then just buy a convertible. Insurance companies don't care about buying the exact same seat. (I did this)

My mom was in a fender bender with my son and I replaced the seat. It was his first accident and being a FTM I felt the need to replace it.
My DH was later in an accident with a carseat in his car without my son in it. I did not replace that one.

[Anonymous]

I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure insurance companies will cover the cost of new carseats. I think there is fine print which may prevent them from covering them (ie: if you were using the seats improperly, using after market products with the seat, etc).

I think that's the case. I probably should look into that for myself.

General rule of thumb is if there was major damage or minor-major injuries or if the airbags went off - replace them. If there was damage to the door they were closest to - replace them. The guidelines above give the general gist, but some carseat manufacturers have different guidelines.

[Anonymous]

I think there should be two big disclaimers to the advisory recommendations 1) its so they don't get sued for trying to say what accidents are 'ok' and which ones 'aren't' and 2) obviously profits to be made if you throw them all out. You are Mom, so its your call. I don't think I'd lose sleep over keeping them if the accident was minor and there were no signs of damage inside the car, but that's just me.

[Anonymous]

We were rearended and the other driver's insurance paid for a new car seat. In our case, the back window of our RAV4 was smashed in, so there was broken glass all over the car seat but it obviously wasn't damaged. The insurance company immediately offered to replace it. Since then, we've had another accident and it was the same deal. I don't think the insurance companies try to split hairs on this one.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Very different experience in terms of the insurance response. We were rear-ended but the airbag did not deploy. Neither our insurance (Allstate) nor the person who hit us (State Farm) would replace the car seat. They had a whole lot conditions that had to apply before they would replace it. Since it wasn't a major accident and buying a new car seat was not required they told us NO. We replaced it ourselves since we were comfortable knowing that there could be issues with it.

[Anonymous]

Hmm, veyr interesting. The guy who hit me had Geico. I have Liberty Mutual. Does it make a difference if the seats are empty during the accident?

[Anonymous]

Insurance pays typically and I'm very surprised at 15:32's experience. My insurance company told me they'd ensure the other company would pay if they said they wouldn't. They immediately said yes when I asked. I was hit by a Geico policyholder as well.

Most car seat manuals say to replace after any crash. Britax follows the NHTSA guidelines above. If an insurance company were refusing I'd be making a big fight based on the manual/manufacturer guidelines.

[Anonymous]

My daughter was involved in a minor accident sans child and when I called our insurance company I was told the car seat needed to be replaced. She then had her car hit by a deer (ran into her car on Braddock Road), and the car seat was again replaced. Both times, kids were not in it and the insurance company said they'd cover it up to a certain $$ amount. Sidenote: I was told the only way they'd cover it was if we took the seat directly to an office of theirs OR left it in the car at the time it was in for repair.

I was told no matter how slight the accident, a carseat could become compromised. Better to be safe than sorry!

I have Allstate

[Anonymous]

Everyone on this thread should read "Freakanomics" about car seat lobbyists and revise your position accordingly.