I hope you'll all bear with me because my question, while important to me, is only barely related to travel. I have a large Volvo stationwagon. Airbags in front, three seats in the middle row, and two rear-facing seats in the cargo area. I am always leery of seating kids in the two rear seats because I'm afraid of a rear end collision. But when I drive car pool of two extra kids, I have to put two kids back there because I have three kids of my own that always fill the back seat.

Am I right to be concerned? Does anyone have any concrete information about the safety of those rear seats? If they were dangerous, wouldn't some shark plaintiff's lawyer have filed some big time lawsuit by now? Does anyone even do crash tests to check rear-facing seats? Would it be better to seat one of the 9-year old kids in the front passenger seat in front of the airbag?

I hope someone can help me. Thanks.

Children younger than 12 should never, ever be placed in the front seat with a functioning airbag. If you absolutely have to place a child in the front, see if the airbag can be disabled.

You may want to try the newsgroup:

alt.autos.volvo

I commend you for being concerned about safety.

In Pennsylvania we now have a law forbidding any child under 11 years to ride in a front seat with an airbag. My new 2000 Jeep and my husband's 1999 Ford Ranger both have switches to disable the airbag.

I really don't know about the safety of the rear-facing seats, but in general, Volvos are some of the safest cars around. Long before airbags, I met a man who drove his Volvo sedan head-on into a large tree (he had been drinking; learned his--duh!--lesson, and always took cabs after when he went out at night). After this head-on collision, which totaled the car, the dash was pushed back toward him all of six inches. But the previous posters are right; children can be severely injured by airbags, although it hasn't happened often, and when it has, they were usually not wearing seatbelts (this has been true for all serious airbaginjuries to adults as well). If your car is a recent model, you may be able to disable the airbags.

Thank you for your help so far. Noach, forgive me, but what the heck is a news group, and how do I access it?

I really do not want to disable the passenger airbag if the rear seats are safe. Adults frequently use that seat. And even if the airbag is disabled, the front passenger seating position has risks all its own, which is why kids are better off in the back seat. I just wish I could figure out whether anyone has ever tested the rear-facing seats.

I would think the rear facing seats would be some of the safest in the car. Normally the big risk in an accident is being thrown forward or out of the car - the rear seats are much less vulnerable to both. Of course, seatbelts should be worn back there, but I think its probably safer than the middle seats.