The agency's action, announced Tuesday by acting administrator Rosalyn Millman, comes rapidly on the heels of legislation Fitzgerald introduced last February mandating improvements in safety seat standards and instructing the agency to provide parents with better information about the safety features of car seats. Fitzgerald and Lincoln, the two youngest members of the Senate, are both parents of young children.
Car crashes are the leading cause of death among children in the United States.
In many cases, child safety seat standards in the U.S. fall below standards of other countries. Testing for side-impact and rollover collisions and using more test dummies to represent children of different ages and sizes are essential to protecting our children when they ride in cars. These are common-sense improvements that could help save lives. The agency's move to add these scenarios to its battery of tests reflects a needed improvement specifically outlined in Fitzgerald's bill. Millman also announced plans to add more crash test dummies representing children of different ages and sizes, another improvement cited in Fitzgerald's legislation.