Congress Opens Investigation of Evenflo, Maker of “Big Kid” Booster Seats

According to ProPublica:

A congressional subcommittee is launching an investigation of Evenflo, a major maker of children’s car booster seats, over its product marketing and testing practices.

A ProPublica investigation last week showed how the company put marketing over safety in pushing its booster seats as “side impact tested,” even though its own tests showed a child using that seat could be paralyzed or killed in such a crash.

ProPublica obtained videos of the company’s side-impact tests that Evenflo performed on its top-selling Big Kid booster seat, internal corporate documents and depositions that had not been previously public. The tests showed child-sized dummies thrown violently out of their shoulder belts with their heads and torsos careening far outside the seats. Evenflo’s top car seat engineer admitted in a 2019 deposition that if real children’s bodies moved that way, they could suffer catastrophic injuries or die. Yet, Evenflo gave each of those tests passing grades.