S/o rear facing car seats

chocpretzel

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 4:03 pm

Why aren’t all the seats in the rear of the car rear facing if it would be safer for everyone? The front seats would need to be forward facing obv to drive but all benches could technically be made backwards.

zaq

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 4:10 pm

Because 1. most people prefer to see where they're headed rather than where they've been; and 2. more to the point, conversation between the driver and the rear-seat passengers would be impossible. Not to mention that 3. such an arrangement would make it impossible for a rear-seat passenger to give the driver directions.

asmileaday

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 4:14 pm

What if the crash happens from behind the vehicle? Is it still safer for the passengers to be rear facing?
I'm not familiar with the safety science of rear facing carseats but with my limited knowledge it doesn't seem like rear facing seats are safer.

Hashem_Yaazor

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 4:37 pm

The biggest issue is in young kids before their spine is completely fused together (Google internal decapitation at your own risk).

chocpretzel

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 5:23 pm

asmileaday wrote:

Why would it be safer for them to face forward if the car is rear ended? That would hurt their spine vs if they are rear facing it would crush their legs.

ETA or maybe they would install airbags in the back like they have for front passengers to protect them in case of a crash from the back.

The Happy Wife

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 5:36 pm

asmileaday wrote:

The force of the impact continues in the direction of the motion. A car driving forward hits a car from behind. The resulting forces continue in a forward direction (towards the front of the car). The resulting would be in the direction same whether the impact is in the front of the car or in the back.

The Happy Wife

Sat, Feb 03 2024, 5:39 pm

chocpretzel wrote:

The problem is that airbags aren't safe for children.

AlwaysGrateful

Sun, Feb 04 2024, 1:11 pm

The reason is that people are willing to put their kids in annoying or uncomfortable positions for safety reasons but most people are not willing to do the same to themselves.

Car companies would not do this because people would no longer buy their cars, no matter how much "safer" it's supposed to be. People want to live normal lives, and this does not seem "normal." Carseats have slowly become more and more normal, rearfacing used to be only for tiny babies and then gradually got to be for older kids. Yes, if you follow the logic to its endpoint it makes sense for all of us to be backwards, with no coats, and even with a five-point harness. But they know that no one will accept that. Maybe it will happen one day and people will talk about the olden days where passengers actually rode FORWARD, can you believe they were so dangerous like that?