Harness for safety shield type children's car seat

Abstract

This invention relates to a harness, which when used in conjunction with a safety shield type children's car seat, prevents a child from standing or climbing out of the seat, while under most short stop conditions does not restrain the forward motion of the child. Children's car seats which use a safety shield to restrain a child's forward motion under impact, have been found to be the safest of the children's car seats. They are generally suggested for use by children between the ages of 1 and 5 years. During impact or short stop conditions, the safety shield design insures that the impact load is widely distributed over large areas of a child's body. But this design feature assumes and depends upon the fact that the child is seated. Yet certain of these car seats are constructed in such a fashion as to allow a normally active child to stand in these car seats, or even to climb out of them. A harness could be used to keep the child seated. Conventional child automobile harnesses can not be used in conjunction with a safety shield car seat for several reasons. One such harness must be attached to the automobile seat belt, but this same seat belt is used to hold the safety shield car seats in place. Other harnesses are secured to rear portions of children's car seats, and yet safety shield car seats may have no rear portion. Moreover, present automobile harnesses secure the child from the rear and therefore are inappropriate for use with a safety shield car seat. Under impact or short stop conditions, they would restrain the child's motion, thereby preventing the child from realizing the full benefit of the safety shield design. An object of this invention is to provide a harness, which when used in conjunction with a safety shield type children's car seat, prevents a child from standing in the seat or climbing out of it, but under most short stop conditions does not restrain the forward motion of the child. A further object of this invention is to provide a harness which can be adjusted to a child's size and is equally as effective over the range of sizes of children that can be expected to use the car seats. Still a further object of this invention is to provide a harness, which when used with a Ford "Tot Guard" car seat, can be detachably secured to the Tot Guard, without changing the Tot Guard's structure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.