Need Help...3 kids 1 stationwagon...child safety issues...

Found something...not feeling real good about that dern third row seat. Shoot!

Here is what I found:

Vehicle RF seats are for tailgating, not passengers (m)

First, they are not tested as passenger seats. Not for anyone. It's a legal loophole that hasn't been closed, same for side facing jump seats and back seats in pickups. No testing, no guarantee of safety.
Second, no child restraint can be installed there. Child restrainst are built for and tested on FF vehicle seats only.

Third, injuries in a frontal crash are pretty severe and there's the vehicle's engine there to protect the driver and front passenger. What is to protect passengers in this backmost RF vehicle seat? A couple inches of thin steel and plastic?

Finally, the front windshield is laminated safety glass. The rear window is just plain glass, so lots of sharp edges flying in a crash or spikes to be impaled upon.

The NHTSA used to have a flyer with a blurb regarding RF vehicle seats, but I don't find it on their site now. I do have hard copy I can fax or mail to any who request it. Let me know.

Merritt, ICIP, CPS Tech

All I know is that the rear seat gives me the willies. I don't have a station wagon but my sister does and we dealt with this issue a lot when riding places together. Invariably we'd put the older kids back there, but every time a car got close to us from the rear we'd get very uneasy. Can you switch the 4 year old to a booster seat that takes up less space? How old are the twins?

Hey FreeDuck. That is what we are going to have to do. It is amazing how trusting I am as a consumer. I thought because we had a stationwagon and it had a seat in the back with the shoulder belts that it was fairly safe. Why would they make something that unsafe? Gullible, naive, dufus - that's me. I heard a rumor that that the third row seat was in the crumple zone and started looking it up. I also heard that lap belts cause spinal injuries when in a high velocity collision. We have twin 7 year olds and a 4 year old. The four year old is 40lbs. The twins are small at 43lbs..or thereabouts. They all three need to be put in boosters in the back seat but it is snug as a bug in a rug back there. It is unfortunate but we are going to have to find a new car. Our goal with sticking with the wagon was to cut down on fuel cost and I really hate SUV's and vans. They are just so large and gas guzzling for the most part. Also..the stationwagon is paid for...it was so nice not having a car note!

I went and bought another car seat. The weight is 40lbs with the harness - up to 80 with the shoulder strap. So he can't stay in long there in the middle seat. And I even called the dealership to see if there was a kit to install shoulder belts for the middle. The Toyota Highlander has one...so I thought that maybe they could install one somehow. They cannot. The car seat and boosters though really snug - is our safest option at this point.

The sad fact is - we are just too big a family for a stationwagon and we will start looking after labor day for a good used something...I am not sure what yet...since the third row seat is questionable even in Highlanders and other cars...since it is in that "crumple zone". But I am reading and trying to come up with the best option. Of course my practical side keeps remembering the fact I rode in the back of a station wagon as a kid with my feet hanging out the back window going down the interstate...but we were just lucky we didn't have an accident. Can't trust luck.

Some vans are really nice. The Toyota Sienna is especially nice and incredibly reliable and makes a great used car. We are actually planning to get one at some point. We currently have a Highlander that is paid off but there's really not much more interior space than a station wagon and there's no good excuse for it being that high off the ground. If you want a sedan with a little more space back there, Camry's are great cars and not as expensive as SUVs and vans. You can probably find the specs for rear seat room online somewhere and I think you'd be surprised at how much you can get from a regular sedan.

Thanks FreeDuck...I hate car shopping! I am not one of those that feels they reflect who I am...which is a good thing...I really rather see myself as a Porsche rather than a Mercury Sable Stationwagon. We studied the Consumers Digest on Cars and saw that the Sable Stationwagon had such hight marks and the third row seat. But apparently back then there was not a whole lot of statistics on the third row seat issues. We were just trying to be level headed and econimical in our choices! And it was great up until the boys started getting bigger.

The Toyota Sienna does sound nice and it was one of the ones we had looked at before. I love the Highlanders too...But they are so very high...I think that is why I don't like vans and SUVs - they feel so big and unwieldy..but that is just because I have never driven one on a consistent basis I am sure. I would get use to it. And it seems for saftey's sake it may be a must. Our Sable is as big as a Camry in the backseat. It is doable but still just not real roomy since they are all three still in boosters..I would need to see if they had a middle seat shoulder belt too. So much to think of!

Thanks for your suggestions!