Evenflo Car Seats Are Safe and Effective - Tested and Proven to Meet or Exceed Government Standards
VANDALIA, Ohio, Jan. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Evenflo Company, Inc. is deeply concerned
that Consumer Reports magazine has decided to publish an article that
may potentially alarm consumers about the safety of their infant child
restraints. The magazine decided to publish this article without
consultation with child seat manufacturers, even though the tests
appear to have been conducted in October and November of last year.
Evenflo is committed to manufacturing safe and highly effective car
seats that meet or exceed government standards. In addition, Evenflo
subjects its car seats to extensive testing both in-house and through
independent laboratories to ensure every car seat is compliant before
initial sale of its products and during ongoing production.
Despite our request, Consumer
Reports has declined to provide us with an advance copy of the article,
and further declined to disclose in advance of publication the
pertinent information relating to its underlying test conditions and
protocols. This is especially unreasonable, given that the magazine's
test conditions and protocols appear to conflict with the collective
experience of car seat manufacturers, NHTSA and the scientific
community. Rigorous tests conducted by NHTSA and Evenflo have
consistently shown that both the Evenflo Discovery(R) and Evenflo
Embrace(TM) exceed government standards.
Without access to the full review of
the data collected by Consumer Reports, we are unable to provide a
detailed assessment of the magazine's findings; however, we can offer
the following facts and observations about the specific Evenflo
products that the Consumer Reports article appears to discuss:
Discovery infant child restraint
Since
introducing the model 391 Discovery in April 2005, Evenflo has
conducted at least 200 dynamic tests at three different laboratories.
Most of these tests were conducted at test velocities that
significantly exceeded the forces under the NHTSA standard. None of the
tests demonstrated any back angle compliance issue. Additionally, NHTSA
has twice tested the model 391 Discovery and it passed all dynamic
testing requirements on each occasion. Thus, between Evenflo and NHTSA,
there are more than 200 passing tests regarding the Discovery at
velocities that meet or exceed the government standards. Evenflo
unequivocally stands behind the integrity of its test results and the
Discovery(R) child restraint seat and disputes the validity of the yet
to be disclosed Consumer Reports tests.
Proper evaluation of those tests
requires, at a minimum, information about the test setup, the crash
pulse, the dummy and any alterations from the specifications in 49 CFR
572, as well as any deviations from the test protocol set forth in
FMVSS 213 and NHTSA document TP-213 Laboratory Test Procedure for FMVSS
213. We have requested this information from Consumer Reports as well
as an opportunity to inspect the Discovery(R) units that were actually
tested.
Embrace infant child restraint
Evenflo
likewise unequivocally stands behind its Embrace infant seat. Evenflo
disputes the validity of the yet to be disclosed Consumer Reports
test(s) and will review the testing information once provided by
Consumer Reports. Based on the limited information available to Evenflo
at this time, however, it appears that the testing protocol and
equipment used by Consumer Reports in connection with the Embrace
infant seat does not conform to test methods proposed or adopted by
experts from academia, industry, test agencies or government entities
throughout the world. Put simply, there are serious issues with both
the test protocol and equipment that cast serious doubt on the validity
of the test results. Moreover,
Evenflo is unaware of any material
difference in performance when the Embrace infant seat is secured by
the LATCH method or through use of the vehicle seat belt.
All Evenflo car seats sold today
meet thorough standards established by NHTSA and are extensively tested
by car seat manufacturers and the government. Consumer Reports
suggestion that the present standards should be abandoned in favor of
its protocol is inconsistent with real world experience and well
grounded input from the scientific community received in connection
with prior consideration by NHTSA to increase the child seat crash test
speed.
As noted by independent
commentators, there is no evidence to suggest that infant child
restraints would generally be more effective to protect children in
real world crashes if designed to meet higher crash speeds. In fact,
such changes may be counterproductive to the overall safety of car
seats in real world accidents. Like other car seat manufacturers and
NHTSA, Evenflo is committed to manufacturing safe and highly effective
child restraint seats.
We urge consumers to demand proper
disclosure and review of Consumer Reports test results and to carefully
weigh all relevant information before drawing any conclusions based
upon Consumer Reports forthcoming article.
About Evenflo
Committed to
innovation, safety and comfort for more than 85 years, Evenflo has been
the trusted name in everything babies need to grow, go, play and
thrive. From bottles and high chairs to carriers and car seats, Evenflo
creates inspired products for today's active families worldwide.
Evenflo regularly taps into its Safe Baby and Toddler Council, a group
comprised of experts from key areas in the field of child care, to
provide product insights and research. More information can be found at
www.evenflo.com.
