Jeff Lupient: Why Choose a Rear-Facing Car Seat?

Designed for real life, not just test scenarios: rear-facing car seats can protect your child in any situation.

The seat shell and the headrest of a rear-facing car seat act as protective shells for your child's vulnerable body parts in frontal impacts—the most common type of collision. On top of that, most rear-facing child seats feature a 5-point harness, reducing the risk of the child slipping out of the harness in a crash or collision, which could lead to life-threatening injuries, notes Jeff Lupient.

You can always count on the protection of the car seat shell when using a rear-facing child car seat. It can protect your child at any time – no matter the speed of the car or the intensity of an impact.

Most real-life accidents are not as simple as a crash test that tests only one impact point, adds Jeff Lupient. Your car might hit an object or another vehicle first, then a road barrier or another vehicle.

In a rear-facing seat, the child has protection from the seat shell and headrest at every impact point, no matter how many there are.

Rear-facing car seats are beneficial in side impacts.

Rear-facing seats do not only offer maximum protection in frontal impacts. Side impacts, the second most common source of life-threatening injuries or death in traffic accidents, show more benefits than forward-facing seats. Unlike crash tests, Jeff Lupient says most real-life side impacts are not 90° from the side but rather at an angle between side-on and front-on.

In addition, a driver typically sees a side impact coming and instinctively brakes, through which the child gets pushed into the protected area of a rear-facing car seat, explains Jeff Lupient. In a forward-facing seat, the child would get pushed out of the seat when braking and be exposed to forces from the side.

Keeping an eye on a rear-facing child is easier with the right accessories.

Traveling with forward-facing children is widely believed to be easier since you can see them through the rear-view mirror, thus increasing passive safety. However, if you adjust your rear-view mirror to see the rear window, you will not be able to see smaller children in their forward-facing seat, notes Jeff Lupient. You have to try to lean over to see more of your child, and even then, you'll most likely not get a good view.

Jeff Lupient says you can easily adjust the mirror by using a rear-facing seat with a baby mirror so that you always have a proper view of your child. 

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