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Page 10 of 14 Infant Carrier Handle Positioning Where should the handle be? A lot of parents think the handle has to be down when the safety seat is in the car. This is not true! Many infant carriers allow--and some even require--that the handle be up when the safety seat is in the car.The table below lists the authorized handle positions for travel in the car for current and recently discontinued carriers. Please always double-check the manual for your child's safety seat. Tip: The most versatile infant carrier is one that allows the handle to be in postion #1, as the infant carrier takes up the least space in the vehicle when the handle is in position #1. The carrier is narrowest when the handle is in #1, meaning that the carrier is more likely to fit in the middle seat, nestled between the two front seats. The infant carrier also takes up the least amount of space in the back seat when the handle is in position #1. This comes in handy (no pun intended) when the infant carrier is placed behind a taller driver or front passenger or behind an adult of any height in a smaller vehicle. Position #3 will also work well in many situations, but in tight spaces it can be difficult to get the carrier handle up without moving the front seats up, and this makes it difficult to easily remove the infant carrier from the vehicle.    Position 1 Position 2 Position 3
Curious how the rumor "the handle must always be down" got started? The first infant carrier with a base ever sold in the United States--the Century 580--hit the market in the mid 1980's. On this particular seat, you placed the infant carrier into the base with the handle up (position #1) and then rotated the handle to position #2 to lock the carrier into the base. Forgetting to move the handle to position #2 meant that the carrier was not locked into the base and could come out of the base in a crash! The Century 580 and its successor the 590 were the only carriers to feature this type of locking mechanism. All other seats lock automatically when you place the carrier into the base. Other manufacturers were concerned that if they allowed their seats to use position #1, parents might mistakenly think it was okay to use position #1 on a Century 580/590, which could be a deadly mistake. With the last Century 590 made in 1997 (and too old to be used after 2003), manufacturers now feel comfortable recommending different handle positions. In fact, most seats sold in Europe use position #1. |
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