Kids’ car seats are about face tougher safety standards

PHOENIX (AZFamily) ― Kids’ car seat regulations are changing with a goal of better protecting young passengers in side-impact crashes.

“Every car seat had to have front-crash safety testing, and now they’re adding side-impact testing as well,” said Melissa Bykofsky, the executive editor of parenting brand What to Expect.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized the new standard three years ago, and now every car seat that’s manufactured after June 30, 2025, will have to comply with side-impact protection requirements.

NHTSA says the updated safety requirements will save lives, but there’s no need to ditch your child’s current car seat and rush out to buy a new one.

“It is okay to buy a car seat that is manufactured before June 30th,” Bykofsky said. “It’s also okay to keep your current car seats, as long as they have not expired and are installed properly and are not recalled, they are absolutely still safe to use.”

According to NHTSA, many manufacturers are already doing side-impact crash testing.

“The amount of changes that some of these manufacturers had to do was sometimes really minimal, so as soon as the regulations were announced, they were able to update their testing and immediately start complying,” Bykofsky said.

Manufacture dates are on car seat labels. If you have questions about your child’s car seat, contact the manufacturer.

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