Dog Car Seat Failure.

[Jennifer and Jack]

Jack and I just had the scare of both of our lives. We were driving to do some errands, Jack was in the backseat in his booster seat that sits in the center of the back of my car. The booster seat was seat belted in and he was attached by harness to the booster seat.

 I have a Honda CRV. We were on a back road.. I was going about 45-50 mph. The person in front of me slammed on their brakes as a response to the car in front of them. I slammed on my brakes and Jack who was in a booster seat.. went flying like a 10 pound sack of potatoes up against my windshield of my car..he hit it full force and then was thrown under the dash board of the passenger side car....the little strap that was from the booster seat completely came out from the seam of the booster seat right where it was sewn in... When I say it didn't even slow Jack down, I am serious, it was as if it was not secured at all but rather tucked in. 

I immediately got out of the car...and Jack was knocked out.... I picked him up and he started panting really heavy... He didn't yelp or anything just panted heavy...He was only out for what I would guess less then a minute..

My vet was the closest place to bring him.... they took him right back, he has concussion but other then that he is okay. He has thrown up a few times. I have to check his pupils every hour or so to make sure they are responded right and if not I need to bring him to emergency...

Right now he seems okay, just nervous.. (who wouldn't be if they were just smashed into a windshield) My vet said to get rid of the booster seat totally, to write a letter to the company of the booster seat and to try a different means of strapping him in. The more high up they are the more likely they are to be ejected.....also because he was in the center, which I assumed was the safest afterall that is where we they tell you to put babies, he didn't even have a seat to slow him down or to brace him.

I still can't believe what I saw with my eyes... I am sure he is fine but please learn from us, we were not even on a major highway like we usually are where the speed limit is 70MPH just a country back road.... Please find safe measures to keep your baby from being ejected, had he weighed more, no doubt, he would have broken my windshield and who knows what would have happen to him, Please don't wait till it happens to you....I think he is going to be just fine, but I will never trust another dog carseat..

THe other harness that you can buy that strap to the carseat without the booster are too long and they will leave Jack hanging if I stopped short.. which I suppose is better then the windshield but I would like an even better more safe way. Jack is almost always in the car with me, it is rare that he isn't.. I seriously am going to see if he will tolerate a regular kids carseat.. I don't know about him sitting like that though if he will stay.. 

I read on here not that long ago, but a while ago, someone else making a plea to make sure your dogs were for sure safe in a car.. I didn't listen I just assumed...

Again, Jack is fine minus a concussion but seeing something you love so much thrown up against a windshield  knowing that they fully rely on you to keep them safe made me feel like an epic failure.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Thank heavens he is safe!  I'm so sorry Jen...you must have been terrified.

[Charlotte and Bo]

I'm glad you and jack are okay.

[Carol and Banjo]

Jen, I'm so happy that your Jack is OK....how frightening for you.

[Jennifer and Jack]

Thank you all so much for understanding.. It is so easy to read something like this and not apply it to yourself or your situation... I can't tell you how many times I did that.. How many times I have had a false sense of security about him being okay back there....

I can't even imagine what would have happen if we were in a real car accident or going faster... I actually think I know what would have happen.... uggg

[Sally Huff]

Thank you for sharing your  experience and I'm glad you two are alright.  I'm shopping for a new vehicle  because of this issue.  Are the vehicles with the bar barriers  in the back third any safer?  it seems like I have put more thought into this then I did thirty years ago with my children!  OMG, it never ends being a parent, why can't they always remain babies?!  Again, thanks for sharing your experience.

[Star and Goldie]

Oh my goodness this is terrible. If all you do is write a letter to the company, they should consider themselves lucky. I'm sure this is grounds for some type of legal action. It's clearly a product failure. How scary. I was just looking at booster seats and things like that the other day. I haven't purchased one yet but now I will rethink the booster seat idea.  I'm so glad he is ok.

[Katie and Sophie]

Oh my gosh, I am so sorry this happened! I'm glad you and Jack are okay! Give him an extra hug for me!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Jennifer, I am so sorry this happened to little Jack and I am glad he is going to be ok. How scary!!

[Julie, Boomer, Milo & Casey]

Wow, scary! Glad he's going to be OK

[F, Calla & Luca]

I am sorry to hear about Jack but I'm glad he seems OK. I do think the raised seat, and being in the middle make the booster seat a bad idea.

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

So sorry that you both had to go through this..but very glad you are both ok.  I would def write a letter to the company.  I have never looked into this, but do these companies do any safety testing?

[Jennifer and Jack]

Some claim that they do but it appears in the links posted that when in crash testing they had a 100 percent fail rate. Scary