more on car seat safety

Well I have been fighting a cold for about a week now and last night the kids came down with it. The baby was up almost all night crying so today we are all sick and tired.I've blogged before about car seats and have mentioned that I am in a group on MySpace devoted to car seat safety. I have the baby all set to do extended rear-facing but unfortunately Elijah is just in a booster seat and is not in a 5 point harness anymore. I am really wanting to get a car seat that will Elijah to be harnessed again. Why do they have to be so expensive? One of the ladies in that group that is training to become a certified child passenger seat technician posted this and I wanted to share it....

"Please PLEASE rear face your baby as long as possible and 5 point harnessthem to 80 pounds!!! "first a little about where this is coming from. ...One dayI saw a picture as someones default. A little girl in her Halloween costume injust a seat belt she was clearly too small. A little boy next to her in a seatthat looked a little old, straps a little loose and retainer clip to low.Somedays I get the balls to kindly message people hoping they won't get offendedand take my advice. My intentions are to save kids from injury or death not tooffed their parents. So She messaged me back wanting more info, I sent it to hera week later after she raised money from her family and using a credit card shebought a Britax Regent for her 6 year old DD and 16 month old(at the time) aBritax Marathon. She put her DD in a 5 pt harness again and her son in a seatthat was not expired. I told her she should turn her son rear facing since hewas only 29 lbs and the Marathon can be RF until 33 unless outgrown by height.She also took her car, seats and kids to see a CPST that i found for her, theyhelped her install then right and showed her how tight the harness straps shouldbe and where the retainer clip should go. She did everything the right way.There was no misuseHer is her letter to me received today... ( I *** out thenames of her kids)I am not really even sure where to start but here it goes….OnFriday November 23, 2007 I was in an accident. We were driving home from mymother’s after visiting her for dinner the driver of the other car was alsodriving home after a day full of shopping. The other driver was very drowsy frombeing up so early and she veered into our lane on a curve and hit us head on.Thanks to you ******** is ok I can’t even tell you how grateful I am that youconvinced me to put her in the Regent it truly saved her life she didn’t haveanything physically wrong with her. Sadly ******* did not make it, I wish Iwould have taken your advice to turn him rear facing again he was internallydecapitated. His spine was stretched more then it could handle because of hishead. I thought he was fine, I really did. I never really thought I would getinto such a bad accident and he was well over a year and 20 lbs like they say.It seems silly to me now about not letting him eat more then a few lolly popsafter trick or treating, or making sure he ate all of his vegetables when I wasless concerned about the way he faced in the car. You told me it was safer forhim to be rear facing you showed me the videos and told me the stories but Ithought he was fine he had already been forward facing for 4 months so reallywhat was the difference. I wish I would have listened I wish I could be tellingyou that thanks to your advice my son is still here. The paramedics told me notto blame myself that they see it all the time with forward facing youngchildren. How can I not blame myself? I did not get out of bed until a few daysago. I woke up the other day got out of bed and decided I will make somethinggood out of this I will go on I have to I still have *********. I will saveparents, as many as I can from what I have had to go through. I am alreadysigned up for a CPST class, I am going through all the info you had sent me morethoroughly. As hard as it all is I have to do it, I have to save anyone I canfrom this awful feeling, this awful nightmare. Crystal you are amazing! Youtruly care; you are the most selfless person I have ever met. Please keep doingwhat you are doing please keep putting your self out there to save these kids.It hurts so bad to not have my son, if I could only go back and turn her seataround he would still be here. I hate this, I hate that this has happened to me.I hope my story will help keep others from making the same mistake I did. Pleaselet people know, let them know that they need to keep their kids rear facing aslong as they possibly can, because they can’t stop time, they can’t fix theirmistakes after they are done. Thank you for saving my daughter without her inthe Regent she may not be here either. I suffered injuries as well a broken rib,a bruised color bone, and bruises across my chest. The seat belt saved my lifebut may have killed *********. I had no idea an accident was so horrible **** isterrified and has not been in a car since. A counselor comes here for her 3times a week . I can’t thank you enough for helping me."