Car seat safety

[FairfaxAikman]

Cross posted for traffic

Some git backed into my car, damaging the front passenger side wheel arch.

I wasn't there so don't know how forceful the impact was but it was hard enough to activate my dash cam but not hard enough to activate the airbags.

The issue is the car seat. Insurance are paying for a new one but I'm wondering if we can keep this for the grandparents car as we were going to buy them one anyway.

Part of my thinks no way, a crash is a crash, but the other part is reasoning that it was a lowish speed impact (according to witnesses) the damage was not next to the seat, no airbags were activated and it's all operating normally (we took it out or the car this morning). In all honesty it probably got bigger jolts in the delivery box or when going over the numerous potholes in our area.
It's a Joie 360 spin and was "side on" at time of impact as not in use.

WWYD?

Personally if it was just for occasional use I would keep it.

Glad no one was hurt!

They have him three days a week but do shorter journeys than I do (in to town v motorway miles)

I wouldn’t risk it.

That sounds like more of a “prang” than a crash TBH. If the car seat didn’t suffer any impact then it will be fine. Sounds like there was no damage INSIDE the car and if only the wheel arch is damaged then it is highly unlikely the car seat even “wobbled” in the incident.

On a car seat safety group I saw that an impact of anything over 20mph will require car seat change. The theory being that it may have caused some damage you can't see which will make it useless in a bigger crash.

You can normally claim the cost of them on your insurance.

Given the confined space of a car park I doubt the speed was as much as 20mph.

Tbh. I want to scrap it and not take the risk, but DH and his parents are adamant it will be fine.

Given that, will you be okay with keeping it or will you keeping thinking what if?

If it's what if then get a new one.

Was it a maxi cosi car seat?

We had a low speed impact and I replaced the seats. You were going to buy a new one anyway, so you are not down on the deal.

If you are happy for your child to continue using the car seat, even occasionally they you should be happy to keep using it in your car and not take the replacement offered by insurance.

Replace it. I never understand 'it'll be ok for occasional use'; how do you known that the one time you have an accident won't be on that occasion that your child is using the dodgy seat? If the insurance companies are willing to pay out; it's for good reason. They don't cough up lightly. Any impact can compromise the integrity of the seat - you have no way of telling if a minute crack or something might cause an issue in the event of a bad accident.

We've replaced it and bought a second one for grandparents as a compromise to giving them the original.

It was DH and PIL that thought it was excessive to replace it, but that if I was going to do it anyway as insurance was paying and there was (in their opinion) nothing wrong with the original then the grandparents might as well have it.

Think they are a bit miffed that the one we bought them isn't isofix or spinning but I've pointed out that it has a higher weight limit than isofix so will last longer and also fits my dad's non-isofix car.

I would keep it, it was a low impact prang unlikely to have done any damage,

all our car seats came from Facebook,

Shouldn’t the person that hit your car be paying for new seats

The other driver will ultimately.
My insurance gave me the cash to replace the seat and will reclaim from him.
The issue was PIL wanting the original for their car.

Was it a maxi cosi? They offer a free replacement if it's involved in an accident

www.maxi-cosi.co.uk/gb-en/service/swap-service.aspx

As I said in the OP it's a Joie 360 Spin.