Child Safety and LATCH Evaluations

LATCH evaluations are one of the most important tasks carried out by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. This independent organization uses scientific methods to evaluate vehicles for safety and particularly for performance in collisions. One of the most important things that the IIHS does is LATCH evaluations.

LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children. LATCH evaluations are used to let people know about the way child safety seats attach in a given vehicle. These evaluations and rankings were developed in 2015. They help consumers and manufacturers know how well a car meets a family's needs.

LATCH evaluations rate cars as good, acceptable, marginal or poor when it comes to child safety restraints. They rate cars based on how confusing the LATCH hardware is, and how much force is required to attach a child safety seat to the anchors. They also recommend that contrasting tags be positioned near anchors.