Consumer Reports withdraws negative report on infant car seats

WHITE PLAINS — A retraction of a damning report on infant car seats may be a relief for parents who feared for their babies’ safety, but it is an embarrassment for a trusted consumer guide. Consumer Reports said it was conducting an internal investigation into what may have gone wrong in its tests. The magazine originally reported that many seats, including those made by an Ohio company, had “failed disastrously” in test crashes at moderate speeds, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the tests were conducted at drastically higher speeds than the report had claimed. Nicole Nason, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, urged parents Friday to continue using the infant seats. “You’re doing the right thing. Keep doing it,” Nason said on CBS’s “The Early Show.” “Parents should have confidence in their car seats, and they need to keep using them,” she said. Consumer Reports spokesman Ken Weine said he could not say how the tests might have gone awry or who, if anyone, was to blame for the report, which was retracted Thursday. “This is very early,” he said Thursday. “We found this information out very recently, and as soon as we did we wanted to take the most important step, which is openly communicating with consumers.” The magazine said it would review its study, retest the car seats and publish a new article as soon as possible. It asked readers and others who may have learned of the tests “to remember that use of any child seat is safer than no child seat, but to suspend judgment on the merits of individual products until the new testing has been completed and the report republished.” The initial report, released earlier this month, concluded that many car seats failed in crashes at speeds as low as 35 mph. In one test, it said, a dummy child was hurled 30 feet. But the NHTSA said some of the crash tests were conducted under conditions that would represent being struck at more than 70 mph. “Consumer Reports was right to withdraw its infant car seat test report, and I appreciate that they have taken this corrective action,” NHTSA administrator Nicole Nason said. “I was troubled by the report because it frightened parents and could have discouraged them from using car seats.”