Carseats and Accidents??

First give your insurance agent a call...ask if they will replace them...that would be your best bet...if there wass that much damage there is good chance the seats sustained damage even if you can't see the damage...if they don't want to buy you new seats insist on a letter of indemnity...it is basically them saying that your seats are fine and that if something were to happen to your children while in the seats they are responsible...they'll give you the $$ for the new seats...I know that Britax Customer service is able to answer questions related to their seats...and for minor accidents it's sometimes okay not to replace but with the car being totalled I wouldn't take the chance. Hopefully no one in your family was hurt!

B.

YES replace the car seats!!!! No matter how bad the accident ALL car seats should be replaced. Not only that but you should have your seat belts replaced as well. That is how many seat belts fail, if they have not been fixed from previous accidents!

About three years ago my husband scratched a parked car backing out of a driveway and the insurance company said we had to replace the car seat because it was involved in an accident. They said to send them the receipt, it was covered by the insurance. The rules may have changed since then. What does your insurance company say?

J.,
I don't know about after accidents, but I do know that most police stations and fire departments do safety checks on car seats...If your car insurance says that you don't need to replace the seats and you're still uneasy you can alway have the seats inspected by your local stations.

Hi J.,
We had a similar issue when my son was 1. I called our insurance company and they made a decision.

I think the "rule" was that if there was no damage to the seats, then they would not replace them. Sounds silly to me, because there could be something on the inside. But perhaps each agency is different (we have State Farm).

I would suggest that you call your insurance company. Ours decided not to replace ours, but our incident ended up in a lawsuit and we added the new seat into the damages. Ours had glass all over it, so I in good faith could not put my son back into that seat, no matter how much cleaning we did to it.

It certainly doesn't hurt to call and ask.
B.

Yes, you need to replace them. My daughter and I were in a small accident when she was 16 months old. I rear ended someone when they went to stop after a train had passed. The police officer at the scene told me to replace the car seat because there could be damage to the inside that is not visible. I called my insurance company (State Farm) and they said to buy a new one and send them the receipt and they would reimburse us. Check with your insurance company and hopefully they will reimburse you for new ones.

Yes absolutely you must replace the seat even if insurance does not cover it
the seat may be damaged even if it looks fine
i would not risk my kids

J.

Replace it. If your car was totaled I can only image that the car seat was jarred very roughly and the structurale integrity of the seat may be compromised even though it looks okay.

Yes, you should replace them. The plastic may have damage or be weakend in places you can't see (although I do think it's very unlikely). I would see if your insurance company will pay, but if not I would absolutely just eat the cost of new ones. If anything happened to your children later you would regret not doing it. Good luck!

I would go to this link and see if you meet the criteria set by the NHTSA. I believe you will have to replace it according to thier recomendations.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/childps/ChildRestr...

You can also call the manufacturer of the carseat and find out what they say to do since your child was thankfully not in it at the time.

Also know that just because it looks fine does not mean that it is. Sometimes the plastic is cracked in spots you can not see as well as many other structural things you may not notice!

I also belive your insurance company will help to replace these at little or no cost to you! Ask them as well! There is information here that will help you!
http://www.800bucklup.org/parent/replacing%20CSS%20after%...

If I was in your situation, I would just replace them for peace of mind! I hope this helps you and I hope you are back on the road soon!
Many blessings to you and your family!