Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) sent the message to Congress below on August 7, 2021:
Theodore Schwab (Virginia), Father of seatback collapse victim Teddy Schwab: “On March 25, 2016 our 10-year-old son Teddy was severely injured as a result of a collapsing seatback in a rear impact collision. Teddy suffered a fractured skull and a traumatic brain injury during the crash, and our family has never been the same. Still, we consider ourselves ‘lucky,’ as other families have lost loved ones due to the outdated and inadequate safety standard for seatbacks. Auto manufacturers could fix this known threat at a cost of less than $5 per seat. We need the U.S. Senate to adopt language included in the House-passed INVEST in America Act to make this happen in a timely manner so that no family has to experience a preventable tragedy like ours.”
What Theodore Asks You To Do:
Congress must take action now in the infrastructure/transportation bill to prevent crashes, deaths & injuries.
- Children (and adults) who are properly restrained in the rear seat of a vehicle are being needlessly killed or seriously injured when a seatback fails. The federal standard for seatbacks has remained relatively unchanged since 1967. U.S. DOT must be required to improve the seatback standard by a date certain.
In honor of the millions of families like the Schwabs whose loved ones are injured in crashes each year, meaningful safety advances including requiring an update of the out-of-date seatback standard must be made in the bill. Find out more by watching this CBS News story, “Lawmakers added a car safety provision to the infrastructure bill. But some say it still isn’t enough.”