Our little guy opened the door of Omi's car last June, while we were driving down one of those super wide super fast roads in Calgary. So yes, we use the locks when in other people's cars.
They aren't needed on our home vehicle, as the Honda Element's back doors only open once the front ones are opened. And yes, I wonder how safe they might be in an accident.
Chloe hates being in cars, we drove up to Squamish for a day in a rental and on the way home she was so mad that she tried to open the door! the safety lock prevented the door from opening all the way but didn't stop it from becoming loose! On the sea-to sky doing at least 80 km this is not what you want to happen! I had to find an exit and somewhere to actually pull off to the side of the road (not easy on that stretch of highway).
Even though she was strapped into her car seat it was still the scariest 10 minutes of my life with her.
If we did a lot of driving I would use safety locks all the time, and probably put her in the middle of the car to further reduce any further escape attempts. If the boy is more used to car rides you might not need it, and I can see that it might be useful for emergency exits.
They should make it so that if the airbags deploy the safety lock will disengage.
That's a good point that had never occurred to me before. Freeing up the safety lock right now isn't an option because our two-year-old is all over that latch when we're driving, but as soon as she's old enough to get it, that's it.
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