To think car seats until 12 is a bit OTT?

[ConvenientTruth]

I just looked up the actual law on car seats. Here it is: www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/using-a-child-car-seat-or-booster-seat

Apparently children have to use car seats until the age of 12.

Am I alone in thinking this is a bit ridiculous? Parents of 11.5 year olds, do you all truly honestly still use a car seat?

I've not RTFT so not sure if anyone has already mentioned this but there are calls for the height to be changed to 150cm. Which presumably would catch a lot more older children. My son is small for his age and is just about 150cm at the age of 13. I would not have said that the majority in his year are adult-height though - there are a lot of smaller kids who are maybe only 2-5cm taller than he is.

The booster cushions are no good anyway. You need a high back booster. They are expensive but if you use them for 3-4 years you get your money's worth.

It seems likely that it will make little sense to own a self-driving car, as using self-driving taxis would be far cheaper no matter how much car travel one did. Children already don't have to use car seats in taxis, so in fact as soon as self-driving cars come in, child-seats will become a thing of the past for people who use them.

When self-driving cars come in, or maybe a little later when non-self-driving cars are banned, it would make sense to abandon seat belt requirements for both adults and children, as the risk of crashing will be so low.

Any Blakes 7 fans on here (showing my age! (and potential lack of taste!)! The Federation controls everything including weather and flight paths for space ships. If you watch the beginning of the episode Star One the computer system has been interfered with and a space ship carrying 4000 people crashes into a smaller space ship - it also crashes onto a city on the planet below. Whenever I think of that episode I wonder if computer-controlled cars would actually be safer!

child-seats will become a thing of the past for the users of self-driving cars = self-driving taxis, I meant.

Whenever I think of that episode I wonder if computer-controlled cars would actually be safer!

For 50 years science fiction has been promising us that we would be able to commute to work in personal flying vehicles. The reason it hasn't happened isn't the difficulty of creating vehicles, it's the non-existence of air traffic control that could cope with them.

With cars it's different as there doesn't need to be a central controller, each one can do its own planning. Cars have intrinsic advantages over planes, they can't fall off the ground, and because they can use friction with the road, they can both stop and change direction quickly, unlike a plane.

Having said that, there something in the papers recently where a Chinese company has scaled up the kind of small drones that are being used as toys to carry one person up to 20 miles. You don't fly it, you use your ipad/phone to tell it where you want to go, and it takes you there completely automatically. I think something like this has potential to replace some bus/train journeys for some people. I guess air traffic control could cope with completely computer controlled vehicles flying routes that were logged and approved before take-off.

My car has adjustable seat belts, I thought most modern cars would be the same. We are always adjusting them as my husband is 8 inches taller than I am and my son is 11 inches taller so what suits them doesn't suit me.

There's an age component because adult hips post puberty wouldn't fit in a booster seat. Seatbwlts are designed for them so there is no need. But children are skinnier.

Can I ask, does anyone have a DD who has started her periods but is still in a booster seat?

Seems completely bizarre to me, but it must be happening based on this thread's responses.

I am 47 and have 37 inch hips. I can sit in my child's booster seat (just). 37 inch hips is hardly miniscule, though probably a bit smaller than average for an adult woman. I would imagine most younger teenagers are somewhat smaller than I am widthways, surely.

. Useful contribution there.

...that was to LordofMisrule btw

My youngest is 128cm and 11.5 yo. Without a booster the seatbelt catches her neck. The rules seem eminently sensible IMO.

I'm 30. My hips are 30 inches. The car seat my eldest has says its 53inches wide. I assume some of that is the sides but yes I could still sit in it easily if put on the taller setting ( I'm only 5'4 also so it would probably be quite comfy)

DD is 6yo and pushing 130cm. She will stay on her HBB until she fits properly in her seatbelt.

We do have a little booster seat which she takes with her if she's with friends. Not as safe as her HBB but better than just an ill fitting seatbelt I think. I don't care if she's embarrassed about the seat and I can definitely do more embarrassing things to make the seat seem positively brilliant

I am 49, the seatbelt in every car is around my neck. Even in the car I now drive which has adjustable seatbelts, I am forever pulling it down from my neck. There needs to be a redesign of seatbelts.

10 years and 130cm here and still in high backed booster quite happily.

I get quite cross with the PARENTS saying car seats are for babies!!!

DD was happy to sit in a high backed booster until the end of primary school. My brother's son started secondary and was still below height and age. He just got out of the car at the end of the road, so his friends didn't see his booster seat.

Theoretician - child-seats will become a thing of the past for the users of self-driving cars = self-driving taxis, I meant.

I doubt it, driverless cars will always struggle with making decisons based on random events, e/g say an animal / child runs out, the car will have to make a decision on wether to run them over or crash into something else - this stuff is all being looked at at the moment.

Back to thread -

Child seats are looking at heights and weights of the person which is the important part, age is a very basic analogy for this.

Some food for thought - CASPER is the EU research forum for seats - -www.roadsafetyobservatory.com/Review/10074

To reiterate Two groups of children are most at risk when they are not properly restrained: infants using forward facing child restraints when they are less than one year old, and children using the seat belt when they should be using a forward facing child seat or booster seat.

Iggi999 I too was contemplating the automatic reduction in car accidents due to a passenger having their period

My daughter was tiny at 12, still below the height limit.

Chances of her using a booster seat once she was secondary school age?

Get real.

My two older ones got to 135cm by 8/9 and were able to wear the seatbelt safely, I think I held off a little longer until I was sure or got out the tape measure

My 8 yo DS is 135 cm so he doesn't use them.

Massive Disclaimer here... I work for a car seat manufacturer. The research, crash tests etc that I see on a daily basis makes me shudder to think that some people don't see the necessity to follow the law or even basic guidelines. Yes as manufacturers we have a vested interest in getting people to buy seats, but the legislation and testing is independent of manufacturers, so much goes into it,it takes years to get any changes in legislation through. so while of course there is marketing of individual brands and seats, the bottom line is that the regulations are set by avast number of experts in various fields,for very good reasons.

Yep dd is second shortest in year 5 (age 9-10) and 134cm tall. There can't be many 12 year olds shorter than 135cm. If there are they don't live round here. We will keep using it until she complains a lot.