Developers have been working to improve the child safety seat beyond what it is currently capable of. Check out this article form Howstuffworks.com to take a look at how the current LATCH system does and does not work: bit.ly/UvrxDe
"The problem, researchers determined, is that there was no consistency across the industry. Car seats were a confusing mass of plastic and metal and fabric that perched awkwardly and unsteadily on a car's backseat, and it was up to the most responsible adult available to decide how to thread the car's seatbeltsthrough the seat base's loops and come up with something that looked like it might be a tight enough fit. This was, one can imagine, done quickly, under pressure, with a squalling infant balanced on the hip, all the while grabbing fistfuls of hair. Most of the time, it was okay, since people don't crash every time they leave the driveway. But when a crash did happen, this installation simply wasn't adequate and the kid would get hurt.
And so, the LATCH system was introduced. It stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren, and believe it or not, the acronym isn't the most awkward part of the initiative. Rather, that would be the result of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiative to force automakers and infant safety seat manufacturers to meet a series of standards that would simplify the entire process of getting a kid strapped safely into a car. LATCH was rolled out gradually, with orders to be fully implemented by September of 2002. Years later, there are still a lot of questions -- and some of its purported benefits are still being called into question."
Courtesy of Howstuffworks.com
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