3 year old in passenger seat

[Keeponrunning33]

Hi all
Ex picked up my son this morning and put him in his car seat in the passenger seat of his car.
I was running late & didn't challenge. Can see online it's not illegal but much safer to travel in the rear seat.
Presumably airbags not active....
AIBU to be pissed off & worried he's unsafe?
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

It depends on the car seat and car you are using. Generally high back booster can't go in the front with the airbags on, they will normally day this in the instructions. Even some boosters day this to.

This is epically the case in modern cards with side impact air bags people. As they force the side of the carseat inwards, as well as the front one causing damage to the face of a young child. Always check your car manuals and they car seat institutions.

peggy

They don't have to justify it but when they enter into a discussion, giving their opinion on a public forum, I think asking them to expand their point is fair enough.

I have the right questions as much as she has the right to treat treat her child however she wants (within the law). Why so preoccupied with 'rights' though. It seems a common problem when people think about rights when they should be considering responsibilities.

I don't need to justify my choices to you, but here's some of the assessments I've made.

I bought a brand new car 3 weeks after DD was born and went for one that offered the greatest level of safety throughout the entire car, for one. I tend to try and drive at off peak times (because sitting in traffic is a waste of time as much as anything) so less chance of someone else hitting me. I have done advanced driving courses and also hold a racing licence - I read the road far ahead of me and avoid potential hazards in so far as possible. I don't drive too close to the drivers in front of me and have a car powerful enough to move around potential problems quickly. I've never had so much as a puncture in 21 years of driving. I've never hit anyone and the only time my car has been hit it was parked properly and empty in a parking space and a piss poor parallel parker caught it on the rear corner.

The safest place in any car is the middle of the back row of seats. Not many car seats are suitable to be put there, so wherever you put it it's a compromise. When we chose DD's next stage seat (we had her rear facing until around 3) the best seat had been criticised for having a lap cushion which meant children could come out if the car flipped. Some researched the odds of cars flipping (and the low centre of gravity of mine would make that extremely difficult). It's pretty rare for that to happen. Front/rear shunts are far more common and can cause children significant neck problems/pain of they're in 5 point harnesses. We went with the Kiddy seat having weighed up all available information and having checked that she wasn't skinny enough to be able to wriggle out of it.

So please don't patronise me about choosing convenience. There's a lot more behind it than that.

Souper I used Kiddy seats for my children and loved them. Thought they were really safe. However I have since seen some crash tests videos which are very scary - not a roll situation, but an angled collision - the children are pushed out to one side of the car seat at a 45 degree angle. Sorry can't describe well. Someone sent me a link. You need to see the videos to understand.

Mine goes in the front all the time, sometimes the only option as one car is a pick up. It's fine.

Am surprised it's not illegal. Do think new laws are coming in this year about car seats, so worth checking.

Send him some links to crash test dummy videos online - easy to find as countries such as Sweden are not allowed to be forward facing in the back until age 4 or reach a certain weight even.

Where I live at the moment, it's illegal for children under twelve to sit in the front.

However, as most people seem to travel with their children entirely unrestrained, bouncing around the car, on the drivers lap or hanging out of the windows or sunroof, I don't really think they're the last word in child car safety.

Well done for your racing licence and advanced driving. I'm very impressed.

Being experienced enough to 'read the road far ahead of you' is great. I'm not sure a basic understanding of heel and toe shifting or lift-off oversteer will help keep you safe on the roads though.

We have an M6. I don't pretend that the power helps "move around obstacles safely" although it does have lots of good safety features.

Avoiding punctures is good luck and not really a sign of safe driving.

Driving off peak means if there is an accident it's more likely to be at a higher speed so there's an enourmous fallacy in your logic there.

You can use any justification you want but the safest place is in the back. You may be able to lower the risks but you aren't eliminating them and to lower them even further, you'd have her in the back. I wasn't patronising you. You know the back is safer than the front but you want to avoid stopping at every services.

I did say in my PP that of course she's your daughter and it's your judgement call. Safety vs convenience. I just lean towards safety.

the new laws which are being talked about for car seats are mainly about using booster seats however nothing has been decided yet and no new law has been proposed yet.

Front is safer. But 'Traffic Cops' featured an accident where the whole of the back of a car was crushed after it broke down on a motorway and another vehicle went into the back of it. The 2 year old was fine because he was in the front passenger seat.

I still prefer my children to be in the back because it's safer, even though DD gets travel sick. But it's not a given that it is always the best position to be in.

Of course, when I was young, five of us were packed into the back of my auntie's Morris Minor, or we were in the boot of an estate car where we were flung across the floor every time we went around a corner. How did we ever manage to reach this age at all, given H&S back then?

Ceebie. Can you post the link please. I use kiddy.

I did say in my PP that of course she's your daughter and it's your judgement call. Safety vs convenience. I just lean towards safety.

Have a medal.

Mmm. Delicious.

Bye