Consumer Reports is currently under fire right now because they mis-stated the speed at which they were testing child safety car seats. Naturally, Most of the seats failed and some only managed to eek out mediocre ratings.  The rather upset manufacturers balked, and now CR has uncovered that they actually did not test the seats at 38 mph as they stated and as is the industry standard, but rather, at 70 mph.  The question is, does this impact CR's Credibility?

FINALLY!! SOMEONE tests our Products at ACTUAL CONDITIONS we MIGHT ACTUALLY encounter in REAL LIFE!

Face it, the 30-40 mph tests have been INADEQUATE since the freeways raised their speed limits from 55. It is quite normal in Arizona to encounter the average freeway traffic to be up near 80-90 mph, while inner citty traffic is often near 45-55 mph.  Do you remember "Safe following distances" back in drivers ed?  It's supposed to be something like 1 car length for every 10 mph.  Out here in the land of the painted desert high on 'shrooms and inspired by California dreams, I guess everybody has decided it's 1 car length per 10 mph divided by the number of lanes on both sides of the road and then divided again by the number of ugly cars you pass in 10 seconds.  In other words, its real life scary!  So lets play a little of what law enforcement calls the "Whatif Game."

Quite simply, you're moving along I-10 at a leisurely 75 MPH, the stated moving speed limit on this particular stretch of asphalt, when the freeloader on your tailgate behind you bumps you, or you have to dodge debris, or you fall half asleep and wheeve over on the shoulder and over correct, or a poor scrawny coyote runs out into the road trying to escape from a closely following pack of wild rapid ostriches, any of which are scenarios you CAN encounter in Arizona and are indeed real life situations that could cause you swerve, slow down, and even stop in the middle of the freeway.  The oncoming cars, though initially moving at 93 mph, do have some time to slow down, thanks to ABS which lengthens stopping distances and the wonderful disk brakes my daily driver 1963 Ford Fairlane in powder baby blue does not have because she's also a drummer in a hard rock band, but whatever it is, it's not enough to avoid you!  Regardless of all the conditions present, the oncoming traffic can only slow down to 70 mph!! So now we ask the question: which seat will hold up in these conditions best?  Remember, you're probably not going to be in the best of conditions yourself after this little fenderbender of an accident, because if the cars and the tractor trailers and the dumptrucks don't get you, the rabid ostriches and the camels will!  So while you're lying there covered in car guts and broken glass and fending off a coyote and bleeding on the freeway and beating back an ostrich with your broken steering wheel, or flying down the road in an ambulance, or waking up in a hospital three days later, or giving the undertaker the lazy eye, wouldn't it be nice to at least know that you put your child in the seat that give your future the best hopes for survival under even the worst conditions?  Wouldn't it be comforting to know that before you closed your eyes to rest, they told you that your child is OK, and you even saw for yourself with your own eyes that your baby is indeed ok before they close the doors?  Its one less worry in the world!

CR's credibility MIGHT be under attack only if they wavered in the scientific process by which they tested the seats.  In otherwords, if they tested one company's seat at 38 mph, and another companies seat at 55 mph, and a lesser brand at 70, then that COMPLETELY destroys their credibility. However! They tested all the seats in the same manner, and though the test is a little more then the "bash over the head with a foam noodle" safety standards the manufacturers enjoy, it provides us with some very interesting information: Which seats truly protect your children in what will be your worse case scenario?

I haven't been completely happy with all the reviews that I have read by them, when at some times they seem to test some products by standards that are simply unrealistic, but at the same time, this one little error is NOT going to hurt consumers - though it will hurt manufacturers - unless consumers stop using the seats altogether.  As crash dummies once taught us, holding your pumpkin in your lap could lead to your pumpkin all over the inside of your windshield, busting through your wildshield, and ending up a halloween sacrifice across the holy alter of deepfried  well over broiled dinosaur blood known as asphalt.  No pretty!!

Anybody who thinks CR's credibility is hurt by this article needs to review their grounds for declaring such a statement.  CR has done for you one of the greatest tests they could have done: FAILURE TESTING!!  I look forward to CR redoing the test at lower speeds, but I hope they also reprint the original results, this time with the correct speeds listed.  Granted, about 15 manufacturers are already VERY upset because their "mediocre at best but it past the test" product has been already been exposed for the piece of cheap junk that it is; smart consumers are already moving in the three to five best seats in the first test and dumping the rest