If you're one of the hundreds of parents who read the Consumer Report that left you fearing for the safety of your child - you're not alone. The Consumer Report issued on Jan. 4 said they tested the type of infant car seat that faces the rear and snaps in and out of a base. It found only two of the 12 seats worth recommending, and it urged a federal recall of one seat, the Evenflo Discovery. Evenflo had immediately disputed the tests' validity. On Thursday, Consumer Reports retracted the negative report on infant car seats because some of its test crashes were conducted at speeds higher than it had claimed. Talk about embarrassment!

The original report said most of the seats tested "failed disastrously" in crashes at speeds as low as 35 mph. They even said that in one test, a dummy child was hurled 30 feet.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has since stepped in and said some of the crash tests were conducted with a car being struck at more than 70 mph.

"Consumer Reports was right to withdraw its infant car seat test report and I appreciate that they have taken this corrective action," said NHTSA administrator Nicole Nason. "I was troubled by the report because it frightened parents and could have discouraged them from using car seats." More than 100 worried parents called the agency's hotline the same evening the original report was released.

Executive director of the National Safety Council's Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign, Phil Haseltine, said the report had raised doubts among many parents about their car seats despite the "very rigorous standard at NHTSA."

"I think it's going to take a substantial educational effort to undo that damage," said Haseltine, whose organization was created through a partnership of automakers, insurance companies and safety groups.

Consumer Reports has since said they would review its study, retest the car seats and publish a new article as soon as possible. Consumer Reports released a statement Thursday and said they had received information from the NHTSA "concerning the speed at which our side-impact tests were conducted" — supposedly, 38 mph. Consumer Reports spokesman Ken Weine said new information from the federal agency showed that the speeds were higher.

Weine said a recall was still being urged for the Discovery and for another seat which was judged unacceptable because it did not fit well in several cars. Evenflo spokeswoman Jam Stewart said the company would comment later.

The original report found that all the car seats except the Discovery performed properly in frontal crashes at 30 mph, which is the standard for seats sold in the United States. It also noted that cars are tested by federal regulators at higher speeds — 35 mph for frontal crashes and 38 mph for side crashes — this was the reason the magazine tested the seats at those speeds.

Nason said, "When NHTSA tested the same child seats in conditions representing the 38.5 mph conditions claimed by Consumer Reports, the seats stayed in their bases as they should, instead of failing dramatically."

Consumer Reports' Don Mays, a product safety director, said at the time, "It's unconscionable that infant seats, which are designed to protect the most vulnerable children, aren't routinely tested the same as new cars."

Consumer Reports said with frontal tests performed at 35 mph, the car seats separated from their bases, rotated too far or would have inflicted grave injuries. They aslo "found" that at 38 mph, four seats flew out of their bases following side impact.

Weine said Thursday there was no information casting doubt on the 35 mph crashes. He said an internal investigation was under way and he could not yet say how the test may have gone wrong, or who, if anyone, was to blame.

"This is very early," he said. "We found this information out very recently and as soon as we did we wanted to take the most important step which is openly communicating with consumers."

The magazine is asking their readers and others who may have learned of the tests "to remember that use of any child seat is safer than no child seat, but to suspend judgment on the merits of individual products until the new testing has been completed and the report republished." Guess now's the time to say "Don't believe everything you read."

Posted 9:10am EST 01-19-2007