Consumer Reports Withdraws Car Seat Study

Consumer Reports, the consumer product testing magazine, has withdrawn its recent study of infant's car seats.  That study, which generated a considerable amount of news, alleged that several such seats failed crash tests using tougher safety tests than those used by the federal government.  However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which performs the government's testing raised questions about whether the Consumer Reports tests accurately simulated the conditions they were supposed to.  NHTSA claims that the Consumer Reports testing procedures contained significant errors that actually simulated much higher side-impact speeds (70 mph) than the 38.5 mph speed claimed by Consumer Reports.  See Christian Zappone's report for CNNMoney.

JDP