BubbleBum the JPMA Innovation Award Winner and IIHS Best Bet Booster all in one!

May 19, 2017

BubbleBum are proud winners of JPMA Innovation Award 2011 and have won the renowned IIHS Best Bet Booster Award every year since. BubbleBum is the only Booster Seat Brand to win both awards, the IIHS specifically reconginsing safety.

Yearly the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Highway Loss Institute deliver a status report on the safest and the least safe child car booster seats. They also issue useful safety guidelines and advise which car booster seats are good and what ones should be avoided.

If a Booster Seat is awarded the IIHS Best Bet it means that it provides good belt fit for typical 4 to 8 year-olds in almost any car, minivan or SUV. If a Booster Seat is IIHS Not Recommended is means that it does not provide good belt fit and should be avoided.

The world of in car safety can be confusing to most parents with the market saturated with options for a car seat or booster seat. The IIHS provide a detailed analysis for parents and professionals to allow for an informed decision on their purchase to be made. It lists the best seats and the seats to be avoided which is an easy and accessible way for parents to obtain this important information about in car safety, and although all the seats have passed safety regulations, many do not meet the standards of the IIHS and the Car Passenger Safety Technician and Instructor Community.

The IIHS Rating system takes the guess work out of selecting a booster seat for your child, it considers the lap fit, shoulder belt fit and the type of vehicle. Unlike a car seat with a restraint, a booster seat uses the adult seat beat in the car, and booster seats aim to make adult seat belts fit a child better. The IIHS Rating system considers this when deciding what to rate a booster seat.

Throughout the US alone there is over 38, 000 Car Passenger Safety Technicians and these are all certified by SafeKids Worldwide. A CPST is specifically trained in child restraints and in car safety, they can spot problems and know specifics about seats on the market. They also make sure the car seat is correct for a child, installed correctly and trains a parent in its use.

The CPST Community and the IIHS work in alignment with each other to ensure that children are safe when travelling in a vehicle. Both Institutions are supporters of the BubbleBum Inflatable Car Booster Seat and we have featured in the IIHS Report in 2011 to 2016 and have been an IIHS Best Bet Booster Seat for 6 years running.

The BubbleBum was designed for children aged between four and 11 years old, the BubbleBum has been approved to meet both the USA , FMVSS 213 and the European Safety Regulations. The only countries that are not covered by these legislations are Canada and Australia.

The BubbleBum is made from a durable material, similar to that of life vests. The integrity of the structure of the seat comprises of memory foam and a strong webbing harness. The side positioning clips position the lap belt portion of the vehicle seat belt over the bony pelvis area away from the soft tissue of the abdomen, which is the optimum positioning for the safety of the child. The Booster Seat can be stowed in its own stretchy bag for easy transportation, meaning that EVERY child can have a booster seat for EVERY Journey.

The IIHS Report of 2016 stated: “Although booster seats are easy to use, caregivers sometimes wish they could be more portable. Lugging one on vacation or around town in case of a taxi ride can be difficult. A few products such as the BubbleBum inflatable booster, which earns a BEST BET from IIHS, have tried to address this issue in recent years”.

BubbleBum are proud to be named an IIHS Best Bet Booster and have also won the JPMA Innovation Award in recent years, confirming the opinion that the BubbleBum Inflatable Travel Car Booster Seat is a safe and convenient option for all parents.

The IIHS report for 2016 can be viewed here

Information about the IIHS can be found here