To wish people would use carseats and strap their children into cars!

[HappierThanEverBefore]

Bit of a rant I guess

Recently I've been on the road a fair bit and am quite shocked at the amount of children Ive seen in cars without carseats (clearly need one), sat on adults lap (adult strapped in child not) or just 'jumping' around the car! The best bit about it is most the time the driver is wearing their seatbelt!

How hard/time consuming is it to strap the child into a car seat or make sure they have their belt on?

I understand there are some occasions ie taxis that it's not possible but most of these weren't taxis

Probably going to get a flaming for this but needed to rant as it's been on my mind!

Yes seen this at the school gates wrong car seat and no car seat in one car. The mum was looking after someone elses child too. Another mum reported them as it was getting nearly everyday. The mum lived within 10 minute walk of the school easily too.

I also wish people would catch on to the message that coats in car seats are dangerous

As long as the seatbelt t is pulled tight it is fine.

I live on the Midlands and see this a lot!! unfortunately it is an all too common occurrence and ime not isolated to people who don't have English as their first language. it is lazy and dangerous and the police should do more about it but they don't

itsaknockout yeah or where would you stop think cards and extra vest but in all seriousness - I do the finger test as I was shown when the car seat was fitted. It should be tight but not to tight you can't run a finger under the straps.

Its important to know how to loosen the straps then pull them tight again

cardis

The people who survived were those who didn't have car accidents

According to US data in Wikipedia, in 1975 20 people per 100,000 died in car accidents. Multiply by 10 to cover roughly the number of years a child might use a car seat and we have a rough estimated child death rate in pre-car-seat days of 0.2%. In other words, a 99.8% probability of never being in an accident where a car seat would have the opportunity to save life.

This is a real bugbear for me too. Loads of this round here.

Most kids at school have no car seat at all. My DC 1&2 are 5 and 7, they both travel in a Group 2/3 for every journey. I do wonder if people realise their kids need to be a min of 135cm tall before they can travel in a car without a car seat at all.

I've never heard of anyone being pulled over for having unrestrained kids in the car. It seems to be totally ignored around these parts.

I also cringe when I see car seats in the front of cars. I always wonder if the airbag has been disabled. In a Group 0 rear facing seat it is potentially fatal to the baby if the airbag were to go off. Kids in Group 1 or Group 2/3 are at risk of of having their feet and legs broken if the airbag in the front went off.

I haven't seen any loose kids since 90s but i have spent hours hammering in car seat rules to my parents and grand parents who just don't get it and think I'm being pfb- it's exhausting.

I saw this just last Sunday. Three adults in the front of a white van and one toddler on the knee of one of them. Unbelievable.

I see a lot of this.

Once I actually phoned police (after seeing driver pop baby into front seat, no capsule) and they were not interested.

Unbelievably, the car crashed right after pulling out, argh, and even though I was still on phone to police, they STILL weren't interested except to enquire whether other driver was angry.

In other words, a 99.8% probability of never being in an accident where a car seat would have the opportunity to save life.

So?

If you are that 0.2% I suspect you would be reasonably pleased if you were using a car seat.

My dad was a policeman in the 60s and 70s and my brother and I were always strapped in as babies as he'd seen the results of car crashes without baby seats .

I never see kids not in seats though so a bit surprised by the OP.

I live in an area where culturally they don't put their children in car seats (belts are rare too) it drives me potty, why would you risk it?

I was lead to believe car seats protected more against injury e.g whiplash, and so obviously death

It's not just about literally saving lives though is it.Those probabilities don't take into account accidents that resulted in dreadful injuries

Andsmile and itsaknockout you do realise doing the seatbelt tight around a big coat is NOT sufficient...

Will try and find the video but seriously it creates so much more space for the child to move having a coat on.

Please research this and think again when putting your children in car seats with coats on.

I know a family who are well educated (e.g. one is a teacher) have beautiful homes, go on lovely holidays have the best of everything and drive very nice cars, but they regularly drive around with their precious children on their laps. They have car seats but just do not bother to use them.

The very worst thing I ever saw was a lady sat in the passenger seat with a baby on her lap and the seat belt wrapped around both her and the baby. My stomach churned at the thought of the danger even of doing an emergency stop, let alone an actual crash. The poor baby would not stand a chance with the weight of the adult being thrown forward.

I see it all the time round here. One woman lets her 3-year old lie on the parcel shelf!
My son was going on a day trip at the weekend with the cubs and beavers, and I was the only person to take a car seat along. One parent is a policeman and popped his two in the back of someone else's car without a seat.
And the amount of parents round here who take the backs off the high back boosters when their kids start school is unbelievable. the back only came off dd1s seat when it was too small for her - technically she was tall enough to go without, but the seatbelt sat uncomfortably on her neck, so she still.uses the seat part on the odd occasion she sits in the front.

So many people around here do it - and I often see cars with half a dozen kids crammed in.

They probably think it doesn't matter because they're only driving around the corner.

I've accepted a couple of lifts with DS2 without a seat, both when he was 7, but one of those times, DS1 was melting down because of the rain and the other, DS2 was melting down for goodness knows what reason and we'd both ended up sat on the ground because it was the only way I could keep him from running into the road. I felt pretty tense for the entire journey, though. In our car, he has a SN seat with 5 point harness and chest clip, as he has a habit of escaping a HBB.

And yes, we only moved DS1 from a HBB to a backless booster, for a while, when he'd technically outgrown it because the seatbelt in our car cut across his neck, still. He's almost 11 and now taller than his grandma and we have him in the front of the car, where he can't fight with DS2, meaning I can sit with DS2 and keep him entertained and distracted from trying to undo things.

there's a car that takes children to school where my son goes... 2 adults in font seats, one with child on his lap. 7 kids (between the 2 families, I think!) on the back seat. the school does from 3 until 11 so various sizes, none of which are restrained. All able-bodied so could walk to the school ( they live somewhere in the neighbouring estate)

I'd report it, but the community police have a base in the school and they've seen it and done nothing.....