Sep 3, 2009

Orbit Baby Update to Consumer Reports

This past Tuesday, NHTSA tested the Orbit Baby Infant Car Seat for compliance with all crash testing requirements of FMVSS 213. NHTSA confirmed that the Infant Car Seat passes these tests. Below is the email letter Orbit sent out to all registered Orbit Baby owners to inform them that our Infant Car Seat passed NHTSA's own testing.

Dear Orbit Baby parent,

As I mentioned in my last letter to you in regards to the Consumer Reports testing of the Orbit Baby Infant Car Seat,  we referred this matter to NHTSA, the government agency responsible for car seat safety.  I am pleased to share the following information:

Update September 1, 2009: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tested the Orbit Baby Infant Car Seat for compliance with all crash testing requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard(FMVSS) 213. NHTSA confirmed that the Infant Car Seat passes these tests.

NHTSA also independently verified:

The middle shoulder harness slot is the appropriate slot for the size of the official CRABI 12 test dummy.
The knob on the car seat Base should be turned to engage the StrongArm(tm) tightening mechanism to achieve the regulated seat belt tension for compliance testing.
Therefore, our Infant Car Seat not only passes our own tests in independent labs, it also passes tests conducted by NHTSA, the government agency that regulates traffic safety.

Orbit Baby maintains that Consumer Reports did not properly follow the Infant Car Seat instructions when they conducted their tests.  (Our full response can be found here.)  As an Orbit Baby parent, I believe that this issue highlights the importance of following car seat instructions, as well as the need for parents to educate grandparents, babysitters, and other caregivers on proper car seat usage.

Please be sure to take advantage of these helpful resources on our website:

Thank you for your support of Orbit Baby.

Sincerely,

Joseph Hei

CEO and Co-founder of Orbit Baby

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