My efforts in disposing old car seats have met some cheers, so far no complaints. In the interest of further this cause I started some car seat research, perhaps for a future Professor Walter post, and learned a bit more about these things. One neat thing I found was the manual for my actual car seat when I was a little kid. Take a look, it is a 1974 GM Child Love Seat.
Not too bad Mom and Dad. Five point harness with tether, overall a pretty safe seat. I even found crash data on the seat at http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/500/2/44653.0001.001.pdf
Unfortunately what the data shows (from 1980) is something that is still a huge problem today. The seats are not properly used. And, when they are not properly used, kids often die.
So, I went on trying to learn the history of the car seat. I found out that Jeans Ames invented the first one in 1962 in England, but not much else. In fact there is nearly nothing floating out on the net on the history of the car seat. I will have to get something up on Professor Walter before too long. What was disturbing was the Wikipedia page. The main data was fairly standard, but when you read the comments about revising the article I was appalled. One comment in particular was just disturbing. In reference to the laws and safe practice of putting children in the right car seat for their age/size, not using after an accident and disposing expired car seats.
"Does anyone else see the consumerism ends of this product? New seats bought as the child grows; not usuable after an accident; don't buy a used product; expiration dates; recalls; this is not a product of a sustainable economy. Is the limited percentages of reduced injury in a crash worth sacrificing the planet to landfills and polution that nothing can live in?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Child_safety_seat
I don't even know how to respond to this one, children's lives are not important, because there will be more landfill material. Never mind the fact that most of a car seat is recyclable.
-Uncle Walter
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