Last spring, when chatting with Britax about their car seats, it came out in the conversation that, in a previous career, I had taught physics.

An idea was hatched:  I could travel to NY and help them to introduce a new technology in their car seats by doing some fun physics demonstrations.

What ensued were weeks of me playing with basketballs crashing into boards, sawing off hammers, and hanging off of steel bars.   I was tasked with coming up with demos that show the layperson some of the engineering that goes into making Britax car seats safe.

Behind their reputation of making super high quality car seats is a team of engineers that help to move the car seat industry forward.   While I was going to New York to help the layperson understand car seat engineering, it was the Britax engineers who schooled me.

Probably the most interesting outcome for me was learning about they types of injuries that kids have in a crash.  Two thirds of injuries are to the head.   For children up to 12 years old, head trauma is the most frequent cause of crash-related death.  Moreover, even if you install your car seat correctly, your kids head can hit the front of the seat in front of her.

And so there are some things that car seat engineers do to design better car seats.   Brtiax is specifically working on reducing “head excursion”  or head lunge during a crash by lowering the center of gravity of their car seat.  They also have a device called Versa Tether that absorbs energy in a delayed fashion during the crash.    Think of trees limbs cushioning your fall if you fell out of an airplane without a parachute.

Here is a video from that event: