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I’m really curious about the data when it comes to the impact of babies/toddlers/children and even adults wearing coats under buckles in the car. I’m having a hard time believing the risk is worth the extra effort everyone is taking to take their kid’s coat off every time they get in and out of the car. I’ve seen the crash-test video going around, but is there a certain speed required for that to happen? How many accidents with children in car seats had worse outcomes because they were wearing a coat?
—Anonymous
To review, in case readers have missed the information on car seats and coats: safe car seat recommendations say that your child should not be buckled in their seat in a coat. The reason is that the car seat straps are then not as tight. In an accident, this could cause the child to move more, which could (in principle) cause more injury. If the straps are very loose, your child could come out in a crash.
You can see this in crash-test videos like the ones featured in this Today Show segment.
That this is a risk in principle can be seen in these videos, but data on the importance of it in practice is less clear. The straps in the videos are very loose. What if you tightened them as much as possible around the coat? That’s harder to say. And there is no data on car accidents that also has information on coats. That is, there is nothing that would tell you how much risk you avoid by not having your child wear a coat.
In contrast, we do have data from accident reports showing the importance of restraints in general. The reality is that the probability of a car accident is low, and if your child is restrained — even in a coat — their risk of injury is lower than if unconstrained. The added value of taking the coat off is not quantifiable, but in reality it’s small.
Where does this leave you? The safest way to drive with your child is with no coats on, and if you’re planning a road trip on the highway, you should leave the coat off. On the other hand, the increase in risk if you are, say, driving them to school at no more than 20 miles an hour for six minutes is likely close to zero.
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Commenting VERY late on this, but in the late 1980s (dating myself here!) my mom was driving with me in the dead of winter in Michigan and stopped hard, skidded, and tapped the car ahead of her. I shot out of my (1980s!) carseat, bounced off the front seat, and landed back in my carseat on TOP of the straps. Luckily we were in our neighborhood and going pretty slowly.
When I asked her if she was terrified and if she rushed to the emergency room, she said “oh no honey, but you were crying a lot so I breastfed you to calm you down while I was waiting for the cops to make their report”. Everything about this story is completely astounding from a modern parenting perspective. For the record she was normally a pretty careful mom so this one is especially baffling. My kids don’t wear coats in the car, but mostly because I’m trying to break some intergenerational cycles over here.
It was acceptable in the 80s! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4k4YnEbRfw
Wow, the straps in that video do not seem tight to me at all! I want to see the test with straps tightened until you can’t pinch any webbing between your fingers. That’s how tight I was taught to do it. (Not that we should still keep their coats on.)
I’ve watched the video several times now and honestly I’m still not convinced. The initial video of the reporter’s son still shows the straps pretty loose and the chest clip way down at his belly. If the chest clip is where it should be, coat or no coat, that should prevent any flying through the straps. And the crash test dummy has the world’s puffiest coat on, plus the chest clip low, plus the straps going diagonally barely over the shoulders. Obviously with no functional chest clip and the straps off in random directions, that’s a problem, but not because of the coat. Right? What am I missing here?