Car seat confusion... (L)

My son is 18 months old!  He's getting so big and growing like an adorable little weed.  Or a pickle as my sister is wont to call him.  There are so many things that this brings up, but the main focus in the house right now (aside from getting ready for the new baby) is Pickle's car seat.  He is currently rear-facing in a Chicco NextFit Convertible car seat.

At just shy of 28 lbs., he is still firmly within the rear-facing limits, but he's a pretty tall kid and he's been kicking the back of the seat for quite a while now. His knees have to be bent in order for him to sit down. My husband thinks he's getting uncomfortable and it's time to turn him forward-facing. I get that a lot. I disagree. I don't get too much resistance from my husband because all I have to do is say "internal decapitation" and he drops the subject (I'm wondering how long that will last... probably until he reads this blog post...), he definitely puts our son's safety first, he just disagrees that there is a safety issue. But I do hear that he's too big to be rear-facing from others.  I decided to check things out and see if I'm being overprotective.

According to the laws of The State of NJ, little Pickle is old enough and heavy enough (greater than 12 months and 20 pounds) to be front facing. HOWEVER!  The US Department of Transportation suggests that you leave your child "rear-facing for as long as possible!" They do say that the minimum age for forward-facing should be 12 months, but they suggest keeping the child in the rear-facing position for up to three years.  This is more in line with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that babies and toddlers remain in the rear-facing position for a minimum of two years.
I found this chart from the CDC to be pretty helpful:

I hear all the time that, "I turned my baby at 1-year-old and he's just fine." What I never hear is, "I turned my baby at 1-year-old and got in a massive car accident and he's just fine." No one says that. Car seats, whether they're rear-facing, or forward-facing, or booster seats, or seat belts, are not for normal days. They're for the days no one wants to think about.  The possibility that your baby might not be safe even when you're driving is too scary.  I wouldn't leave the house if I thought about it too long. But that's what I think about when I'm making decisions about my son's (and soon my daughter's too!) car seat.  All of the sources cited above say that even adults would be safer in a car accident if they were rear-facing.  Front-end car accidents account for 74% of all accidents and in these cases, the impact would be absorbed by and distributed across the child's whole back if he was rear-facing, or by just the straps of the harness if he was front-facing.

For now I'll fight the good fight and keep my boy rear-facing for as long as I can!  I think that based on all of these sources, I'm not being overprotective.  I think that the rules are changing to keep our babies safer.  I tend to question the rules, but this time I'll abide!