Yes, car accident. Thursday, on his way home from work, Marc got hit by another car. He was getting off the highway exit near our house and there’s a 4 lane situation with a lot of merging going on. While he was waiting at the light some girl in a tinted out Prius slammed into the back of his truck pretty much full-speed. She must’ve swerved right at the end, as most of the damage to our truck is all on the right side. As you can imagine, it has been an odyssey (that is really only just beginning, we haven’t gotten any estimates on the body work, etc. yet) dealing with the police and the tow company and the rental car agency all in time for Marc to make his business trip to Baltimore for this weekend.
So while Marc was away I decided to take the kids’ carseats out of the truck and check them out. I wanted to inspect them, because I had heard that when a car is in an accident you should immediately get rid of the car seats. After some googling, I found this page from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that outlines when carseats can still be used after a crash. Luckily I could say “yes” to all of the criteria for the crash, and I inspected the one base and Rayna’s seat and there is no damage at all.
What I did find, however, was pretty horrific:
OMG
Rayna’s carseat was SO. DIRTY. Like, filthy dirty. You would think she ate every meal of her life sitting in that seat. I took apart the belts, latches and all the pads and got down to business. It took me well over an hour to detail out that seat. It’s shameful. In the actual body of the chair were more than enough crumbs to make a whole granola bar (complete with raisins). Stuck in between the pads and in crevices were pieces of fossilized popcorn and whole generations of goldfish. As I soaked and scrubbed all the pieces the dishwater looked like the stuff they pour out of the carpet cleaning machine.
But you know what’s funny? The whole time I was scrubbing it smelled great. I found a little candy cane up in there, but all the other goo just smelled like lollipops LOL
After the extreme clean I’m happy to present:
As we like to say around here “So fresh, so clean!” Maybe now I’ll try to limit what I give Rayna to eat in the car!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that sucks about the accident. I didn’t know that!
But I’ve totally had the “OMG” car seat moment. I’ve taken Payton/Bailey’s apart a few times when there was an accident (accident from being sick/diaper leakage, etc, not car!) and it’s so gross!!!
Commenting on the car seat reusing rather than the safety aspect – well done for being proactive and researching, and making sure it was still safe to use.
haha! I started reading the blog with the worst going through my mind and halfway through i was laughing out loud! I think every parent has had that moment of pulling the car seat out and getting the ewww moment. great post..made my day!