A brief history of children's car seats...and a personal story

From Ed!!!

Not sure that a history of child car seats has ever been written, lots of bits and pieces but nothing that brings the development of child car seats together in a cohesive fashion and situates that evolution into the larger context of the evolution of safety.

There were a few companies that offered child car seats in the 1930s (mostly bags that you put your kid in behind the front seat) but this photo is of one of the first relatively effective (not really) seats sold in the early 1940s.  It was apparently made of aluminum and had sort of a shelf that pulled out for the child's feet.  It was somewhat adjustable (up to a point).  But note there was no head restraint and today's practice is for child safety seats to position the child backwards rather than forward-facing.   The "theory" back then was that the child should be high enough on the seat that he or she could see out from the windshield.  But we now know that the best placement of a child safety seat is in the back seat, preferably in the middle.

A personal story: When we lived in Tennessee years ago we often traveled from Cookeville (where I was with Tennessee Tech University) to Nashville for shopping.  This is Interstate 40 and about an hour long trip.  One time we were on the way to Nashville and our son was in his car seat in the back.  Unfortunately, he had the habit of unbuckling himself and climbing out -- all the time.   We couldn't keep him in the child seat.  In this instance he had climbed out and was clambering around the rear window package shelf.  We were pulled over by a Tennessee Highway Trooper and I was asked to leave our car and sit in the passenger seat beside the State Trooper.  He then told me that "you'd better keep your kid in his car seat and so let me tell you a little story."  He then proceeded to tell me that only a week earlier he had been called to the scene of a horrible accident where he watched an emergency crew "scrape" (his word) an infant off of the windshield.  He went into detail: The mother screaming, the blood everywhere.  My response: "Officer, I get your point.  We will strap our kid into his car seat with duct tape if we have to.  Your point is made.  May I go?"  His reply: "No, sit here and let me tell you another story."  He then told me about another  tragic accident he was called to a year earlier where two children were killed and both were not in car seats.  Again he went into detail: The blood, the screams.  "Officer, may I go now......I promise our kid will be strapped in......duct tape, whatever it takes."  The trooper let me go with a warning.  But he held. me in his patrol car for at least 15 minutes.

In Tennessee, at the time, if a car carrying a young child without a car seat was pulled over, the driver was given a citation.  But if the driver would purchase a child car seat and then bring the receipt for purchase to a State Highway Patrol station, then there would be no fine and the violation was forgiven.

One wonders how many young lives have been saved through the use of well-designed child car seats?