Four child car seats are raising safety questions after pieces of them broke during Consumer Reports tests designed to simulate crashes involving kids.
Related: Don't make these 5 car seat mistakes
The nonprofit says some of the harness systems that would hold young children in place were damaged during trials with crash dummies.
"In one case, the structure supporting the top tether -- an important feature that anchors the car seat to the vehicle -- was too," according to Consumer Reports.
In 2014, Consumer Reports launched its own comparative child car-seat testing protocol to simulate real-world crash conditions. The magazine’s goal was to identify car seats that provide an additional margin of safety -- beyond the basic level the government requires.
The four toddler booster seats drawing concern in this round of testing are the Britax Frontier ClickTight, Britax Pioneer, Cosco Finale and Harmony Defender 360.
In one test, the Britax Frontier ClickTight was damaged so badly that the safety harness pulled completely through the seat, according to Consumer Reports.
Britax released a statement saying its booster seats are safe when used as intended, but the company plans to keep talking with Consumer Reports "to benefit from their perspective," according to Consumer Reports.
To read how the other seats performed and see the responses from Cosco and Harmony, click here.
At the end of the day, experts say a car seat is still better than no car seat. But, it's worth researching the safety performance of the one you use for your child.
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