To let my DD travel in the front in this scenario

[vvviola]

DD1 (just turned 6, pretty tall for her age) is due to go to an after-school activity tomorrow. It's her first time at this activity. I'm at lectures until late so a friend has offered to drive DD there and back. I'm hugely appreciative as it gets us out of the complication of after-school care & also means DD can do her activity with her friend.

Today friend's Mum came to collect booster seat for tomorrow. Just got a message to say it doesn't fit in her car with other car seats.

Only options I can see are no car seat, or DD in her booster in the front. It's about a 20 minute journey. I've had her in the front with booster seat for short journeys before, but would two 20 minute journeys like that be just too much of a risk? It's mainly suburban roads with about 10 minutes on (not crazily busy) motorway.

And if I am BU, does anyone have a possible solution that I might not have thought of?

Its much safer to deactivate an airbag than it is to rely on the seat being back.

But if it's deactivated then you're losing its benefit in the event of a serious collision, surely?

Many cars have an on-off switch. But if its a child in the seat, there isn't much of a benefit in a serious collision. It's as likely to cause injuries as it is to prevent them.

The message is, the back is ALWAYS the safest place for a child. never put an under 12 in a front seat unless you really have to, and then switch off the airbag if you can, and put the seat as far back as possible, and use the appropriate seat/restraint.

Annabelle - when I was buying a car when I was pregnant with DD1, I asked the guy who sold it to me about switching off the airbag (I wasn't planning on putting her in the front in her baby seat, but wanted to know that the option was there if necessary). He said that while it was possible, he wouldn't recommend it, and wouldn't do it, as it wasn't 100% certain that it would work & the airbag could still trigger in a collision. Have you heard/come across that? It was a 2004 Toyota Corrolla if that makes a difference.

I don't know about it coming on anyway, I've never heard of that, but I do know that official advice from pretty much everywhere is to switch it off if you are going to put children in that seat. My car, like many, has a key switch so I can easily turn it on and off.

Ah, maybe that's the difference. This car didn't have any sort of switch easily accessible - a mechanic would have had to rummage about somewhere to completely turn it off. Perhaps in older models the idea of switching on/off hadn't been really considered.

Mine's a knackered old ford focus so I wouldn't have thought I'd have the option of disabling it anyway.

On balance, I'm going to assume that it's fairly safe for someone 5' tall if they are sitting properly and the seat is right back. I spend a lot of time driving DD around and we couldn't talk so easily if she were in the back. I might get a cushion for her to sit on to boost her height a bit.

Thanks for making me aware of this issue though.

you're welcome.
You might want to check your car though, you could be surprised. Mine is a 13 year old citreon and I have it, so you might.

I regularly ferry around kids - my own and others (aged 5.5 - 9) and have to have one of them in the front or I wouldn't be able to fit them all in. I'd never given it much thought. They are all on booster seats (not with a high back) if they're not tall enough to be without. I'm sure it is safer for them to be in the back but honestly it's safer for them to never get in a car at all - they have to get about to places! I have found that to get 3 booster seats on the back they have to get in one at a time and the last one in the seat belt has to be done up 1st then child has to climb into the seatbelt or it's really tricky to do up. iyswim

We had a problem with a booster in the middle seat of my parents' car and bought a 'bubblebum' travel seat, which is inflatable so fits between the structured seats. Doesn't help with the immediate need I know, but might be worth looking at?

I thought the air bag only had to be disabled for rear facing seats due to danger of suffocation? What's the risk to bigger kids?

It's all detailed above. It can blind or kill a child. It shoots out of the dash at up to 200mph with the impact force of hitting a brick wall at 25km/h Its not designed for children, its at the wrong height and the impact is far too strong.

and its nothing to do with suffocation in rear facing seats.

I should point out that while serious injury and fatality have massively decreased, injuries are common. And the older your car is the more dangerous it is.