Is Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite Convertible car seat safe?
Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at
5:36 am
I am looking into getting a new car seat for my 8 Month old son. I was looking into the Britax Boulevard, which is 0 +. Now that is really expensive and not sure I am able to buy that. My sister told me about the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite Convetible car seat which I found to be only . Does anyone else have the Safety 1st car seat and can tell me anything about it. I am a little torn.
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I am a single Father with a little girl. I drive a Mazda3 that does poorly on rear side impact crash tests. Poorly, according to the United States National Traffic for Highway Safety (NTHS). However, in my model statistics improve with rear seat airbags. Afterwards, I could not get the rear airbags installed, since they were not installed at the factory. I could not afford to get another car now that I learned after the fact. The bottom line is Mazda does not perform well in rear seat occupancy fatalities. However, I did find that my car has anchors to secure the seat in the center section of the rear seat.
In my case I compared Graco which was at a similar price point as Omega Elite Convertible car seat to Britax. I swallowed hard when I saw the price tag, I too was torn, so was my pocket book, in fact it was ripped. I purchased the Britax, took the car with car seat to the Fire Station for a fireman/paramedic to anchor the seat properly in the rear quarter of the car. I asked their opinion about Britax and they swear by the brand, because they see the carnage after the accident. They cannot endorse a brand, however, the paramedics told me I made the right decision from their point of view.
As a parent if some idiot hit me from behind and I knew the rear seat was not up to snuff, if she became paralyzed or died on my watch, I would die. From the reviews I read about Britax, which is big in Europe, they test their car seats occupants survivability with a 60 mile per hour head on collision and a 35 mph side impact collision. The mathematical model states the survivability in a Britax is statistically greater then any car set currently manufactured.
Fortunately we have not had to test the theory. In hindsight, $300 is not a steep price to pay to protect my baby. I have found it to be peace of mind and the best I can do as her Daddy. I recommend if you have to borrow the money get the Britax and move on to the next decision point of parenting. Cheers.