The IIHS said that more than half of new child booster seats earned a "Best Bet" rating this year.
It’s not only new cars and trucks that are steadily improving their safety ratings, child booster seats are seeing an impressive level of improvement as well, according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
More than half of the seats introduced this year earned the group’s top rating – Best Bet. The “Best Bet” ranking means that they correctly position a four- to eight-year-old child to use the regular shoulder and lap belts in almost any car.
“Parents should have an easy time finding a top-rated booster seat since there are more this year than ever before,” said Anne McCartt, IIHS senior vice president for research, in a statement.
“At the same time, consumers should continue to consult our ratings before buying because name brand, price and style don’t always equate with proper lap and shoulder belt fit.”
Britax, Evenflo, Ferrari, Graco, Harmony, Recaro and Safety 1st all had seats on the institute’s “best bet” list. Both booster seats with high backs and those without backs performed well.
The cheapest “best bet” was the Graco Connext backless seat, which costs $18. The most expensive, the Ferrari Beline SP, which has both high-back and backless modes, is $300.
The Institute began rating boosters five years ago because research indicated that most seats weren’t doing a good job of fitting safety belts correctly and consistently on children in a variety of vehicles.
Boosters earn a rating of Best Bet, Good Bet, Check Fit or Not Recommended, based on a protocol that involves measuring how three-point lap and shoulder belts fit a child-size test dummy seated in the booster on a stationary test fixture under four conditions that span the range of safety belt configurations in passenger vehicles.
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The evaluations focus on safety belt fit and don’t involve crash tests, according to the institute.
A belt fits correctly when the lap portion lies flat across the child’s upper thighs and the shoulder portion crosses snugly over the middle of the shoulder. The institute said children in booster seats are much less likely to be injured in a crash than those without boosters. Children should use boosters until they’re big enough for adult belts to fit properly, IIHS said.
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In all, there are 58 seats ranked on its website, including seats that weren’t new in 2013. The group tested the boosters based on how they positioned a child-sized test dummy to use a car’s seat belts.
There are only two booster seats the institute warns people not to buy: The Safety 1st All-In-One and Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite. Both are made by Dorel Juvenile Group, which has several other seats on the “best bet” list.