SAN ANTONIO – A new safety feature for infant car seats that is common in Europe recently made its way to the United States.
The load leg is a support that extends from the base of the seat to the car floor, which adds more stability.
In the most recent ratings of rear-facing seats for infants conducted by Consumer Reports, four rear-facing infant car seats with load legs performed best in a 35 mph crash test.
"In our crash tests, seats with a load leg resulted in almost a 50 percent decrease in head injury risk to the dummy compared to seats without it," Emily Thomas, of Consumer Reports, said.
The load leg requires an extra step to install the car seat, but it's not considered difficult to accomplish.
Car seats with a load leg are expensive, ranging from $250 to $400.
Not all domestic cars are designed to work with this new style of car seat, so it's important to check the vehicle manual for any restrictions.