National Survey of Child Passenger Safety Technicians on the LATCH System, United States, 2013

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety · 2014 · AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

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Summary

This report summarizes findings from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety regarding the Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren (LATCH) system, mandated in nearly all new U.S. vehicles since 2002 under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 225. The research was conducted to inform potential updates to FMVSS 225 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), aiming to improve the system’s usability based on over a decade of implementation. The study combined human factors analyses, expert panel workshops, and a national survey of certified Child Passenger Safety (CPS) technicians to identify lingering concerns and common usage errors. The CPS technician survey component involved randomly sampling technicians from a national online database. Between October 29 and November 12, 2013, 2,936 technicians were contacted via email, yielding 533 responses (18.2% response rate). The survey utilized multiple-choice questions and an open-ended item to gather professional opinions on LATCH ease-of-use and observed installation errors. Key findings revealed a complex relationship between technician support and perceived usability. While 81.3% of respondents agreed that LATCH is effective for achieving correct installation, 54.6% stated it requires improvement. Significant ease-of-use concerns were identified: 80.5% reported that installation errors are not obvious to parents, and only 46.4% believed parents are more likely to install seats correctly using LATCH than seatbelts. Technicians frequently observed critical errors, including the simultaneous use of LATCH and seatbelts (83.9%), loose installations (79.6%), and lower attachments connected to the wrong anchor bar (79.8%). Additionally, 47.8% noted weight limit exceedances, while 82.5% observed unused top tethers and 59.9% saw tethers attached to incorrect locations. Other identified issues included difficulty locating anchors, securing unused components, and challenges with center seating positions. Based on these findings, the report offers several recommendations to enhance safety and usability. It advocates for providing LATCH in center back seats and all three rear locations where space permits. Standardization measures include increasing and harmonizing weight limits for lower and tether anchors, requiring minimum accessibility standards, and standardizing lower attachments across child seat brands. The report also calls for clearer information requirements, such as clearly indicating anchor locations, specifying weight limits in manuals and on seat labels, and providing consistent terminology. Finally, it emphasizes the need for increased public education regarding LATCH functionality, tether importance, common mistakes, and weight limits to mitigate user error.

Key finding

Among 533 CPS technician respondents, more than four in five reported often or occasionally observing parents using LATCH and the seatbelt together, failing to tighten LATCH installations, attaching lower anchors incorrectly, or omitting required top tethers—despite majority agreement that LATCH can be effective when used correctly.

Methodology

survey

Sample size: 533

Provenance

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Topics

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• child passenger safety