Orbit Baby Responds to Consumer Reports

Update: May 25th, 2010: Consumer Reports’ review was of our generation-one Infant Car Seat, which is no longer available for sale. Owners of this discontinued product should use it with complete confidence, and we hope that all the information below addresses any potential concerns. After years of engineering development work, we were proud to launch our G2 (generation-two) Infant Car Seat in early 2010. For parents interested in this new product or our new Stroller Travel System G2, we would like to clarify that the Consumer Reports review referenced below does not apply.

Update October 26th, 2009: We had promised that we would update you on the situation with Consumer Reports' testing of the Orbit Baby Infant Car Seat. We are pleased to let you know that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has sent Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports) a letter officially stating that no further inquiry is necessary because our product meets all federal safety standards.

  • NHTSA reviewed their comprehensive database of the safety history of the Orbit Baby Infant Car Seat on the road, and did not find any reports of injuries, seat separations, or other safety risks.
  • NHTSA conducted its own tests on the Infant Car Seat. All tests passed, and no separations occurred in both sets of tests:
    1. Crash testing according to the official Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS)
    2. Research crash tests to match the non-compliant procedures that Consumer Reports'magazine used in August
  • You can read NHTSA's official letter to Consumers Union about Orbit Baby here. We have also provided more information below in an effort to further clarify the situation.

Though Consumer Reports has repeatedly tried to raise what they felt were safety concerns with our Infant Car Seat, their concerns have been refuted by every subsequent test and piece of research conducted by regulatory agencies and independent labs. (You can read more about our past statements, and learn more about how Consumers Union improperly conducted its simulated compliance testing below.)

  • Based on a comprehensive inquiry, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has now issued an official statement that it "believes that no further action is currently warranted" in researching the safety of Orbit Baby's Infant Car Seat.
  • In its inquiry, NHTSA reviewed their database of over three years of comprehensive real-world reports from consumers, safety personnel, and NHTSA's Early Warning Reporting system with NO reports of deaths, injuries, car seat separations, or complaints. NHTSA does not solely rely on lab tests, like those conducted by Consumer Reports, when evaluating the performance of a safety product. At Orbit Baby, we have always emphasized the real-world safety that families face out on the roads, and we are proud of the fact that our track record of safety is a key factor in NHTSA's conclusion.
  • NHTSA conducted the official Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 213 tests that are required of all US car seats, and as expected, our Infant Car Seat passed this testing, and no separations occurred. In addition, NHTSA further conducted research tests to simulate the non-compliant test conditions that Consumers Union conducted. These tests were all done at the same lab that Consumers Union originally used, and were attended by three Consumers Union representatives. NHTSA also reported no issues or car seat separations on these tests.
  • In NHTSA's recent letter to Consumers Union, it confirmed that the magazine's original tests of the Infant Car Seat deviated from their official government test procedures and were NOT configured correctly according to FMVSS No. 213. We believe the improper test set-up Consumer Reports' used likely contributed to their inconsistent results, and you can watch our original response to their mis-testing of our product below.

We have always tried to put the concerns and safety of our consumers first, and have tried to do our utmost to research this issue independently as well as cooperate with NHTSA at every turn. Even though NHTSA has directly told Consumers Union that the inquiry into Orbit Baby's Infant Car Seat safety is concluded, Consumer Reports maintains its assessment that this seat poses a safety risk. We believe that Consumer Reports' decision unnecessarily confuses parents, and believe that they should reconsider their recommendations.

As an Orbit Baby parent, please continue to take advantage of these helpful resources on our website to ensure that you, as well as the caregivers for your children, are educated on proper car seat usage.

Thank you once again for your support of Orbit Baby.

Best,

Signatures

Joseph, Bryan, and The Orbit Team

Learn more about car seat safety: