Safetyforum.com, Child Safety Lawyers Urge Safer Products, Not Safety Lectures

    ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 16 "National Child Passenger Safety
Week is a national disgrace," said Safetyforum.com, and Douthit, Frets, Rouse
& Gentile, a Kansas City, Missouri law firm that has successfully sued leading
child seat manufacturers dozens of times because of "avoidable injuries caused
by shoddy child seats built to an antiquated federal standard," according to
Randall Rhodes, a partner in the law firm.
    "This is supposed to be National Child Passenger Safety Week.  Actually,
it is a national disgrace," wrote Ralph Hoar, director of Safetyforum.com, in
an editorial published today on the organization's website.  "In fact, it is
little more than an opportunity for the U.S. Secretary of Transportation,
child seat manufacturers, automakers and so-called child safety organizations
to engage in unseemly finger pointing as they blame parents for inadequately
protecting their children when they put them in poorly designed and built
child seats and booster seats. This is probably true but stop blaming
parents," Hoar said.
    "This is simply a variation on the same, time-worn theme we hear in all of
our cases.  Poorly designed child safety seats, negligently engineered to meet
the minimum, antiquated performance standards of FMVSS 213.  Lousy, often
wrong, instructions are commonplace," according to Rhodes. "Then, when parents
get confused, inadvertently install seats incorrectly and kids get injured in
walk-away accidents, the child safety seat manufacturers blame the parents.
Believe it or not, this happens every single time," Rhodes said.
    In one of his first acts as the new Transportation Secretary, Norman
Mineta issued a press release calling on parents or "care givers" to do a
better job of protecting their children when they travel. "Studies have
indicated that 96 percent of caregivers were confident that they always
install and use child safety seats correctly.  However, data from actual
safety seat inspections show that at least four out of five children are
incorrectly buckled," Mineta said.  Hoar called this "standard industry and
safety hack drivel."
    "Do they think these parents are idiots or that they would intentionally
endanger their children?   Parents are sold defectively designed and
manufactured child seats, built to antiquated federal standards, with
confusing instructions, to put in cars that were not designed with children or
their safety in mind. "

    Through litigation Rhodes said that he has come to realize:

    *  The current child safety seat standard (FMVSS 213) is antiquated and
       must be updated;

    *  All child seats and boosters should include tether straps, wider,
       stronger webbing and reinforced slots on the child and booster seats to
       accommodate the webbing

    *  All child seats and boosters should include clear, concise accurate
       instructions.

    *  Ban boosters with shields and recall those that are already in use.

    Safetyforum.com is a product safety research firm that works with safety
lawyers to bring about safer products.  Attorneys at the Douthit firm are
Safetyforum.com's "Attorney's of Record" for vehicle child and booster seats.

    The Editorial may be found at http://www.safetyforum.com/opinion.html .

    Information about child seats may be found at
http://www.safetyforum.com/childsafetyseats .

    http://www.safetyforum.com

    Contact:   Randy Rhodes, 816-941-7600
               Douthit, Frets, Rouse & Gentile

               Doug Gentile, 816-941-7600
               Douthit, Frets, Rouse & Gentile

               Ralph Hoar, 703-469-3700
               Safetyforum.com