[jzl]

In the comments of the article I posted there is some discussion about proper seat installation. I thought this commenter summed it pretty well:

"While it may be possible that an improperly installed car seat may not be any more effective than a seat belt alone, and that probably accounts for at least some of the Freakanomics data, that is a SOLVABLE problem. Ditching the car seat is one “solution,” but I would argue that a much better solution would be to meet with a child passenger safety technician to make sure your car seat is being used in a manner that would keep your child as safe as possible. “Other people don’t use car seats correctly, so I won’t use one at all” is a rather absurd conclusion, don’t you think?"

That point aside, the bigger one is that they concentrate on fatalities more than injuries, where there is a ton of data on the effectiveness of seats for children older than 2.

Generally speaking, Freakonomics does raise many interesting points that make you think more critically about causality. But more often than not they end up drawing a blanket conclusion that is as lazy and un-nuanced as the one they claim to have debunked.

[Retric]

> While it may be possible that an improperly installed car seat may not be any more effective than a seat belt alone, and that probably accounts for at least some of the Freakanomics data, that is a SOLVABLE problem.

That's not going to explain the data. The numbers require seat belts to be about as safe as car seats for children 2+ on average. Thus, unless an improperly installed car seat was significantly worse than an average seat belt, it's all kind of a wash.

Anyway, this is more about public policy than individual choice. If your spending public money to promote something it must increase the average safety levels or your wasting peoples money.

PS: As to improper use, when swapping multiple car seats it’s very easy to forget to attach one. With seat belts it’s more visually obvious their not in use. That’s a huge safety risk and could account for the unexpected data.

[acollins1331]

This is false, the data was selectively biased. Stop spreading misinformation. The "data" you talk about says that seat belts are about as effective as car seats at preventing death, which is true. However the data that is ignored in that study is that they are far better at preventing severe injuries to children. Please look into what you say when people believing your bullshit could severely injure a young child.

[Retric]

The hypothesis I suggested was specifically in response to that data. With improperly installed car seats resulting in preventable deaths, and properly installed car seats resulting in reduced injuries.

Otherwise it’s difficult for something to meaningfully reduce injuries without also preventing deaths. Unless you have a better explanation?