Unsuspecting mom learns her car seat is fake during hospital release car seat check

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah hospital said unsuspecting parents are falling victim to fake car seats.

Child safety advocates at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital said most people are finding counterfeit car seats online for a deal.

In June, Jillian Davis was ready to bring home her newborn baby in a car seat that her family had gifted her.

“It was a car seat, a stroller, and a bassinet all in one from her grandpa,” Davis said.

Before she was released, a hospital car seat technician checked the car seat for safety. It failed the inspection.

“The first thing I was looking for was making it fit her baby. I was looking for the minimum weight sticker, but there’s not one on here,” said car seat technician Ruth Vayo.

Vayo said she is seeing an increasing number of counterfeit car seats in parents’ cars.

“To take advantage of families is just really terrible and heart-wrenching because they’ve gone through a lot, and everyone wants their baby to be safe in the car,” Vayo said.

Vayo explained that Davis’s seat was super lightweight, had no chest clip, no splitter plate, and several manufacture stickers were missing.

“You’re supposed to have a manufacturer name, a phone number to be able to call with questions, a way to register your car seat,” Vayo said.

She also couldn’t adjust the car seat’s harness, and the warning message was grammatically incorrect.

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Davis said she was distraught and thought about what could have happened to her newborn.

“My first thought was, ‘How have I never heard of this? And what did I miss?’ because I have three other kids,” Davis said. “I wanted to cry. We had been there for two weeks, and we were finally ready to go home; this was the last test.”

Davis said that her newborn’s grandpa purchased the car seat through a third-party vendor on a big box store’s website.

“They don’t take responsibility for the third party, so it was kind of on us. We still have been out of the money,” she said.

 

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The car seat combo cost them $350, which seems like a discount, but experts said lower prices are a red flag.

“It’s so hard because I’m such an online shopper, and I feel like most parents are,” Davis said. “The convenience of it has made it more convenient for people like this to go online and sell things that aren’t legit.”

Davis hopes other parents can learn from her experience and checks every strap, sticker, and clasp so their baby can get home safely.

“If car seats aren’t actually getting properly checked, parents don’t know,” she said.

Intermountain Health offers free in-person or virtual car seat check inspections through its website, or you can call 801-662-CARS. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website can also help you find a car seat technician near you.

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