Car Seats and Boosters

As the previous poster mentioned, the at-fault insurance company is responsible for reimbursing you for the replacement of those seats. HOWEVER, you have to be vocal about it. It should come out of the property damage settlement, but some insurance companies do not see the seats as permanently attached to the vehicle, so they may refer you to the liability adjuster. You can make the argument that the seats are required by law anytime the children ride in the car. Basically, if the PD adj. doesn't give it to you, make the liability adj. give it to you. If all else fails, you can file it on your homeowner's insurance, but if you are like most people, your deductible is more than the costs.

Now, for which car seats to buy, I suggest going right for the boosters at this point. My neice has a GRACO booster that seems pretty sturdy. HTH!

The insurance company that is responsible for paying for the accident is also responsible for covering the cost of new carseats (both bosters and seats). You may want to check with them before you start replacing seats.

A. -

First off - thank God everyone is okay! Second off - lets make sure if anything happened again - the result is the same! 5 point for sure!!! Go to you tube and check out what people say...specifically the Miller family. Their 3 yr old was over 40 lbs - they assumed he should go to a booster...his seat belt failed in an accident. He didn't make it. Now - keeping in mind - it was the seat belt that failed - not the seat....but his sister is now in a 5 point....after I saw this (someone forwarded it to me) I made sure that my son at the time 3 went into a 5 point that would hold him for a very long time!

Good luck....

first, i'm glad everyone is okay. second, abrasions from a 5pt harness are FAR preferable to serious injury in an accident. it sounds like you were lucky that it was the type of accident that a booster was able to do the job. additionally, i am REALLY surprised that your kids, especially your oldest, aren't too tall for the marathon... i know at 5, my son was too tall for the marathon, though he hasn't even almost outgrown the weight limit still at 6.5 years old. that may be one of the reasons the harnesses caused minor injury. anyhow, i would not go to a booster. in a rollover collision, that could make the difference between life and death. my 6.5 year old is still in a 5 point harness, the britax regent. my 3yo is in a britax boulevard. and i am speaking from experience, my boys were involved at ages 1 & 4 in a rollover interstate collision, both in britax boulevards, both walked away literally without a scratch. good luck! i would go with the britax regent, or at least something that's a 5pt harness.

look here:

www.car-seat.org

AWESOME and informative site.