Push to Make Installing Car Seats a Breeze

— -- If you’ve ever tried to fit a car seat into a vehicle, you know how hard it can be.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, however, has launched a new ratings scale today regarding LATCH hardware, in hopes of getting automakers to make it easier for parents to install car seats properly.

The insurance institute tested 102 cars for the ease of use of LATCH hardware that automakers put in their cars to connect car seats — but a scant few were rated "good."

“What we found is that only three [vehicles] are in the top rating of good,” said Jessica Jermakian, a senior research scientist with the insurance institute. “More than half were poor or marginal.”

The three cars with good ratings were the BMW 5 series, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and the Volkswagen Passat.

LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children and can be used in addition to or in place of a vehicle’s seat belts. According to the Insurance Institute, LATCH was required in vehicles and on child car seats starting in 2002.

According to a 2009 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 70 percent of child car seats were improperly installed, which could mean death or serious injury to children in accidents.

One problem with the cars who received low ratings: The lower anchors were sometimes buried in the seat or were hard to reach. In other vehicles, the tethers for the top of the seat were often not marked or covered. The Insurance Institute said in a news release that parents were more successful in properly installing a car seat when “LATCH hardware meets certain key ease-of-use criteria.”

Jermakian said that LATCH hardware was created to simplify car seat installations.

“Parents shouldn’t have to struggle to install their child restraint and so we’re trying to make that easier for parents,” Jermakian said.

Click here for the institute’s ratings criteria and to see how the cars fared.