FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VOLVO BOOSTER SEAT NAMED ONE OF NATION'S "BEST BETS"
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Ranks Volvo Booster Seat in top 10 of 41 Booster Seats Tested
IRVINE, Calif.(Oct. 3, 2008) -- This week, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) named the Volvo Booster Cushion one of 10 best bets in the booster seat industry. Because booster seats are meant to elevate children so that safety belts designed for adults are in the right position to restrain kids during a crash, the IIHS evaluated the safety belt fit boosters provide, not the crash protection. Volvo's booster seat was found to best position the safety belt on the child's body.
"Safety is our foundation," said Doug Speck, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Cars of North America. "This ranking acknowledges that even Volvo accessories - like our cars - are engineered to be the best. Our engineers invented the child booster seat in 1978, and we'll always focus our attention on safety for both children and adults."
Boosters elevate children so that safety belts designed for adults will fit better. The lap belt should fit flat across a child's upper thighs, not across the soft abdomen, which is more likely to be injured in a crash than bony structures like the pelvis. The shoulder belt should cross snugly over the middle of a child's shoulder. Then it's in position to provide effective protection in a crash. Plus it's comfortable to use, so a child won't be as likely to move it behind the back or under an arm.
At around age 4 and at least 40 pounds, children should ride in belt positioning booster seats. Children at this age are not yet large or mature enough to correctly use the adult safety belt. Buckling a child without a booster seat is premature and could cause abdominal, spinal, head, facial and neck injuries if the child is a passenger in a car crash.
In both the XC70 and V70 models, Volvo combines a standard height-adjustable integrated booster cushion - a world first - with an extended inflatable curtain and power child locks. This combination provides the industry's best passenger safety system for children of different sizes.
Visit www.volvocars.com/us/experience/Pages/safety.aspx to learn more about child safety in cars. Visit http://www.iihs.org/ to learn more about the IIHS booster seat evaluation.
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Media Contact: Kim McMartin, Haberman & Associates, 612-372-6464, kim@habermaninc.com
