A recent article in the Chicago Tribune blasts the government for failing parents and kids when it comes to safety standards and crash testing for children’s car seats.

Posted by Angi

The concept defies logic because, after all, the 40-year campaign for safety seats has been about protecting our children in the event of a crash. But the article follows a Tribune investigation of 2008 model year frontal crash tests, during which 31 of 66 children’s car seats flew off their bases or exceeded allowable injury limits. This alarming data was included in thousands of pages of test data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), but it wasn’t specifically publicized. Why? Well, technically, the crash tests were evaluating the vehicles, not the car seats.

Before a car seat can be sold, it must pass a crash test on a bench sled that simulates a 30-mph, head-on collision.  They are not tested in real cars, and they’re aren’t tested for side-impact crashes. In the test results the Tribune analyzed, they weren’t even tested at the same speed: The vehicle crash tests were conducted at 35 mph into a wall.

Common sense tells you it’s nearly impossible to predict the damage from a real-world crash with tests that don’t use real vehicles. In fact, the Tribune found higher injury ratings in the vehicle crash tests when the baby dummy’s head hit the back of the vehicle’s front seats. The sled tests would not predict such injuries because there’s nothing to hit. The bench test doesn’t use anything to replicate the front seat.

Interestingly, in Europe, cars are rated specifically on how well (or how poorly) they protect children. In the United States, it’s not a factor. According to the Tribune, many child safety seats performed poorly even when they were tested in vehicles with five-star safety ratings, and ratings aren’t affected if a vehicle’s back seat breaks apart in a head-on collision.

If you want some comfort in all this, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ordered a top-to-bottom review of child safety seat regulations and has ordered NHTSA to make crash test data more available to consumers. NHTSA also recalled the two worst performers on the crash test, and one child seat manufacturer has committed to a comprehensive overhaul of its evaluation system. NHTSA is also evaluating improvements for the sled tests, including possibly adding a front seat model.

Parents: What are your thoughts? What would make you feel safe—besides securing your young passengers in a protective bubble or full body armor?

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For another controversial look at the child seat debate, watch this interesting presentation from Steven Levitt author of Freakonomics. About 14:55 in, he advocates a different concept that has yet to take off. Watch now.

If you’ve been paying attention to the newest, quirkiest car to hit the road, chances are you’ve caught a glimpse of the “smart fortwo.” It just hit the U.S. market, even though it’s been commonplace in traffic-choked European cities for years.

And while we won’t typically cover new cars in this blog (there are plenty of others that do that), this appropriately named two-seater micro car is turning enough heads that we thought we should share with you what we know about it.

Their strong points are cost and size. At about $12,000 new, these tiny cars are relatively inexpensive. They average 40 mpg, and they’re 98.4 in. long—the width of an average parking space. This makes them popular with city dwellers.

The weak points? Lack of speed and comfort. With a 71-horsepower, 3-cylinder engine, they’re not going to burn up any racetracks. And reviews of the car are suggesting the car is great around town but leaves a lot to be desired on the highway in terms of power and comfort.

Some motorists are going to have safety concerns because of the minute size, although initial crash tests have shown the car to be fairly roadworthy. Both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the smart cars good marks. The smart car earned maximum marks in the IIHS crash tests and, in the NHTSA tests, earned a mix of three, four and five star ratings. (There is a note on the NHTSA review, though, that says the driver’s door unlatched and came open during a side impact test.)

More than 800,000 of these smart cars have been sold worldwide. Will we embrace them in America? We just might. Even in our wavering economy, you’ll have to wait to buy one. (More info is available on their web site about their $99 Reservation program.) And the smart car needed so little introduction that it was not exhibited at this year’s Chicago Auto Show.

With record-high gas prices and ever-increasing traffic congestion, the smart fortwo is likely to earn strong consideration from urbanites with no family to chauffeur and families in need of a very basic second car. It’s also an ideal fit for that group of “I have to have it first” consumers.