With no car of our own, I’ve honestly never really put much thought into car seat safety. We don’t use car seats on a regular basis and with it not being in our everyday routine, it’s never been a priority for me to learn the ins-and-outs of car seat safety. That was until a couple of weeks ago when I had the opportunity to visit the Britax headquarters.
I’ve long had a relationship with Britax as we’ve used their car seats and strollers for both girls. When I was at my in-laws house in North Carolina for Harlan’s spring break, Britax invited me out to their headquarters to see where they conduct car seat safety testing, design car seats and strollers, produce and assemble car seats, and so much more!
I visited the production room where Britax assembles all of their products by hand.
Everyone had gone home for the day, but the car seats are assembled by hand with the help of these machines. This section was assembling the Marathon G4 car seat in the Cowmooflauge fabric, which is a signature Britax fabric.
This gives you a sense of how big that assembly room is. They assemble many car seats in Fort Mill, S.C.
Britax has always been committed to improving child passenger safety and their car seats undergo rigorous testing in their testing facilities. Not only do they test to federal safety standards, but then exceed that by conducting more than twice the number of tests required, as well as side-impact testing for car seats. I had the chance to check out their on-site crash-test lab where they run simulated frontal and side impact crash tests and study the effects that crash forces have on the car seat occupant (calibrated dummies of all sizes and ages).
I wasn’t allowed to take photos of the sled test that uses the child crash-test dummies, but let me tell you it was a huge eye opener for me. It made me realize how naive and arrogant I was for ignoring car seat safety just because my children don’t regularly ride in a car. Just seeing the impact that the force of a crash had on the dummies made me want to do whatever I can to ensure that not only my car seat is installed properly, but that my children are as safe as they can be while riding in them.
While Britax is committed to safety, they also care about the details. All of their fabrics for both car seats and strollers are hand-picked by a team of designers on-site.
Perhaps the most eye-opening part of the entire experience was seeing the wall of letters and photos sent in by actual Britax customers that thanked the company for their commitment to safety. These were parents who had children that survived car accidents because of a Britax car seat, as well as proper installation and everyday use.
As a parent, these images were so hard to look at, but showed me the reality of just how critical car seat safety is. It’s my job as the mom to Harlan, Avery, and Macks to ensure that they are safe and one part of that is being safe in the car.
Thank you, Britax, for not only giving me a behind the scenes look at your company, but also for changing the way I see the importance of car seat safety. My children thank you too.
Britax is generous enough to give you the chance to win a car seat of your own. Fill out the form below for your chance to win a Britax Advocate Convertible Car Seat, which has side impact cushion technology. This is the car seat that we currently have for Avery and was used for Harlan before she moved into a booster.
For more behind the scenes footage at Britax, check out this video.
{Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post in any way. I really wanted to share with you my experience in learning the importance of car seat safety.}
