Here’s the bottom line: In a week or so Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) will announce a recall of more than four million Cosco and Eddie Bauer car seats. The models affected are Cosco Alpha/Omega, Touriva and Hi Back and Eddie Bauer Touriva and Hi Back car seats.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there are two problems: The webbing on 3,957,826 Dorel seats fails to conform to standards for abrasion; and the webbing on 54,400 car seats may degrade when exposed to sunlight . In both cases, the concern is that the seats won’t provide sufficient protection in a crash.
(You can preview the model numbers on NHTSA's Web site by searching on complaint number 02C026 for the large recall and 02C053 for the smaller one.)
The road to the recall was long and winding. How long? The recalled seats are eight to 10 years old, which means a lot of them were retired a long time ago and their original occupants are now learning how to multiply fractions and spell “significance.”
At issue was pretty much everything: Were the tests flawed; did the webbing retain adequate strength even after it was abraded; if there was a problem, why have there been absolutely no complaints; and oh, by the way, doesn’t NHTSA itself say that child seats shouldn’t be used beyond their “useful life,” which, in most cases, is six years? So why recall seats that shouldn’t be in use anyway?
Because they may well be. Car-seat labels are required to include a date of manufacture but are not required to include an explicit expiration date. Though newer Dorel models include an expiration date, these older models didn’t, so if users aren’t aware of the six-year recommendation, they may not know that they should stop using the seats. And, given these “tough economic times,” NHTSA says, people are likely to hang onto them longer than they should.
NHTSA has denied Dorel’s petitions and the company will be issuing a recall next week. If you own one of the models, refer to the label to determine when it was made. Unless you can confirm that your seat was made after 2002, it’s a good idea to check the model numbers to see if it is a recalled model. You can search NHTSA's Web site or Dorel's or call the company at 1-866-690-2539 for more information.
Our take: If your car seat is six years old or more you should discontinue its use regardless of the recall. Though NHTSA requires that Dorel offer a fix to the problems associated with these seats as part of their recall resolution, we recognize that the seats affected are all currently older than the six-year recommended use of child restraints. We suggest that you use the replacement harness or tether supplied by Dorel under the recall only for as long as it takes to replace the seat, which owners should do as soon as possible. The six-year life recommendation is based on the potential for all components of a child seat to degrade under use and exposure conditions—swapping out just the affected components shouldn't be viewed as a means to extend the life of the seat indefinitely or for another six-year period.
—Jonea Gurwitt
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