I recently had the opportunity to review the Complete Air Car Seat with Air Protect technology from Safety 1st. We love it! Now, in honor of National Child Passenger Safety Week, you have the opportunity to win one of your own.

Please take a moment to read more about Air Protect technology as well as my review of the car seat.

Complete Air Car Seats/ Photo Courtesy of Safety 1st

Here’s how you win:

To Enter (once per person/household):

1. Leave a comment on this post (right down below) and tell me one thing you learned about the Complete Air car seat or Air Protect technology from the two posts mentioned above. You must follow this step in order to win.
2. Make sure you enter the correct email address in the email spot on the comment form so I can reach you.

Details:

• Contest will end at 11:59pm Eastern on September 30, 2009.
• Winners will be chosen via random.org. Winner must comply with all rules mentioned here, or a new winner will be selected. I will have the final decision in this matter.
• I will email the winners who will then have 48 hours to respond and claim their prizes.

Bonus Entries:

• Subscribe to this blog (once)
• Blog about this contest using the full url *no shortened links* (once)
• Tweet about this contest (max 1 per day)

To claim bonus entries, please post one comment on this post per bonus entry (include permalink or tweet url)

Questions? Contact me.

Related posts:

1. A Review of the Complete Air Car Seat Using Air Protect Technology
2. Side Impact Collisions and the Air Protect Technology
3. Day 36 – Win a Copy of the Let’s Grow Safety First DVD from Sprout

We received a car seat in the “Harvest” (brown and orange) design. I wasn’t sure I’d like it, as everything else in our car is charcoal, but it looks pretty sharp. The Air Protect technology comes in the form of a cushion “wings” on either side of the child’s head. I wasn’t sure if LadyBug would be annoyed by them, as they looked like they would block her view. As it turns out, the cushions act like pillows and she is now able to sleep in the car without slumping over the harness. Honestly, even without the added safety features, this alone would sell me on the car seat!

Complete Air Car Seats/ Photo Courtesy of Safety 1st

We easily adjusted the straps inside the house to make sure it would fit LadyBug properly. She loved the new car seat so much that she cried when we took it outside to install it. Installation using the latch system was very fast and when we later decided to raise the shoulder straps to fit LadyBug  better, we were delighted to see that we could do so without removing the car seat from the car (QuickFit Harness System). Hurray! Not only does this make it easier to adjust as your child grows, but simplifies the process if you need to transport a different child in the same seat.

The Complete Air comes with an optional cup holder which, when installed, is perfectly positioned to hold a sippy cup within your child’s reach. No more twisting around to hand sippy cups to your kids! I’m wishing that Bug’s car seat had a nice cup holder, too.

The seat is cushy and my daughter looks reasonably comfortable. My only complaint is that there is no padding around the strap between the legs or on the shoulder harnesses. Those aren’t essential, but they’re nice, especially for younger kids.

A few caveats… first of all, this isn’t a small car seat. It’s not as big as some of the mammoth seats out there, but it’s a good size. Second, we did not use the seat rear-facing, so I can’t speak to the easy of installation or comfort level in that position.

All in all, I’m happy with the Complete Air car seat and LadyBug is, too. Knowing that it provides an additional layer of safety for her makes it all that much more impressive!

Learn about Air Protect technology.

Disclaimer: I received a Complete Air Car Seat for review with no promise of positive feedback. The content of this article represents my own opinion, as well as data from outside sources. I make no scientific claims about the product and its ability to keep a child safe in a collision.

Related posts:

1. Side Impact Collisions and the Air Protect Technology
2. Ford Asks What Women Want
3. Pop On Pals Amusement Park Deluxe Playset – A Review

When I was approached by 360PR to check out a car seat designed to minimize the damages from side impact collisions, I have to admit that I hadn’t much thought about the technology behind our car seats. We had chosen them based on reviews, our budget and their ability to hold a child who is bigger than the average car seat passenger (Bug is in the 95% for height and weight). I took some time to research side impact collisions and learned that although they they cause one third of the deaths for children due to car crashes, the government currently has no requirements for testing car seats in these situations! It’s scary to think that the car seats we rely on to protect our children may not even be tested in relation to a side impact crash.

Fortunately, car seat manufacturers are one step ahead of the game and have been working technology to protect our children in the event of a side impact collision, particularly in the case where a larger (higher) vehicle crashes into a smaller one. One of the studies done involved the Juvenile Design team at Dorel Juvenile Group and the Crash Safety Center at Kettering University. The team developed a new way of modeling a side impact crash called the “intruding door” technique. Their tests show clearly that in a side impact collision, the door of the car is actually pushed into the space normally occupied by the child (see the video below). The results of their research led them to develop a new technology called Air Protect, which is designed to increase the “ride-down,” or time it takes for the child’s head to come to a complete stop, in a crash.

The extra protection in Air Protect comes in the form of sophisticated air cushions on either side of the child’s head. The cushions are made of a special foam (which has been tested in a variety of extreme conditions to ensure it will hold up) that allows air to pass through. In a collision situation, the other car hits the child’s door, which then pushes into the car seat. The car seat then slams into the child, often causing severe head injury. According to the researchers behind Air Protect, the cushions in the product absorb enough of this force that the child’s head is able to come to a slower and safer stop.

While researching the Air Protect, I had the opportunity to speak with Dave Amirault, Director of Design and Engineering at Dorel Juvenile Group, who was lead engineer on the project. Dave has two kids of his own, so he is keenly aware of how important car safety is for parents. Dave spoke about the new Air Protect Technology with enthusiasm, saying, “It is a technology that we believe whole heartedly in… it’s thrilling… we work very hard and we want to make sure we make great product, and we do. And then to have something like this come along. I’ve been in the industry 9 years and this is… the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of. Yeah, a lot of heart and soul into it.”

As a technology writer and a blogger, I enjoy a lot of opportunities to speak with the people behind the scenes who have developed the products we use every day. It’s refreshing, as a consumer, to see the excitement and passion they have about the products and know that the bottom-line isn’t the only driving force. With that in mind, I asked Dave about his motivation to move into the juvenile design industry as I noted that it took place right about the time his son was born. Dave admitted that the shift in his work at that time was not a coincidence.  “I was living and breathing the product and use,” he told me. “It’s kind of the going story with a lot of us in the juvenile industry. Once it gets in your blood, you’re really into it because you know it’s making a difference. It’s improving lives and saving lives. It’s just rewarding.” That’s the type of sentiment that makes me feel just a bit more comfortable when I strap LadyBug into her new car seat!

Read my review of the Complete Air Car Seat!

Visit the official Air Protect website.

Disclaimer: I received a Complete Air Car Seat for review with no promise of positive feedback. The content of this article represents my own opinion, as well as data from outside sources. I make no scientific claims about the product and its ability to keep a child safe in a collision.

Related posts:

1. A Review of the Complete Air Car Seat Using Air Protect Technology
2. Ford Asks What Women Want
3. Enjoy the RIDEZ