Reporter: What was supposed to be a routine errand for Chris and Amy Burlile turned out to be anything but.

Chris Burlile: We did about a full 360 and then about that time we hit the grass embankment and we ended up rolling down the hill.

Reporter: In the backseat, their 12-week-old daughter Amelia, protected by her rear-facing car seat, suffered only a scratch. Roll-overs are a rare and often dangerous situation, but there are other, more common crash scenarios that researchers are beginning to investigate.

Experts know that rear-facing car seats protect children in both front and side impacts, but rear impacts are rarely studied.

Julie Mansfield: And that's good, it's because children really aren't getting hurt that often in rear impact scenarios. But it's a question that comes up a lot with parents.

Reporter: So Julie Mansfield and her team at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center conducted an experiment to determine just how effective car seats are in rear-end collisions.

Mansfield: What we found aligns really well with what we know from crash data in the real world, and that was that these rear-facing car seats protected very well in this crash condition.

Reporter: Researchers investigated the effects of rear-facing car seats with various safety features including carry handle positions and anti-rebound bars. They found that all were effective in preventing injuries in the rear-impact scenario studied.

Mansfield: Hopefully this data can help show them that, despite their child facing the direction of impact in this scenario, these seats still have the ability to keep their child very safe.

Reporter: Mansfield says parents should always follow the recommended height, weight, and age guidelines when choosing the safest seat for their child, something Chris is thankful they followed.

Burlile: I'm really glad we did, because it, you know that thing that we never thought would happen actually did happen.

Reporter: At Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, this is Barb Consiglio, reporting.

[Amy Burlile lifts Amelia out of her carseat and coos.]