Any police officers here? Can you settle debate for us please?

[nickyjy]

A relative of mine has kindly offered to take my 2 DC (twins aged 6), along with her child (aged 4) and a another relative's child (also aged 4) on a day trip that involves a 1 hour car journey in each direction.
I asked how she intends getting 4 children in back of her car, with only 3 seat belts. She said my twins can each have a seat belt and the younger 2 children can "share" the 3rd seatbelt, so that it pulls across and straps both of them in.
I'm not sure whether this is legal or not? And whether it would risk the safety of the 2 little ones in the event of an accident.
Obviously I haven't agreed to my twins going on this trip yet, not until I know whether what my cousin has suggested is actually legal/allowed.
Any ideas? Would really appreciate a definitive answer, ideally from police, legal people or similar.
Thanks, Nicky x

4 children on her own sounds like a recipe for stress regardless of how she gets to the destination.

I don't think that's one of the test scenarios for new car safety approval.
Another one that needs to be said is when an adult has a child on their lap, and slots the child in the same seat belt as themselves. Given that a seat belt worn correctly in a decent car accident is likely to cause serious bruising to the adult (broken collar bone is also possible), you can only imagine the effect on the child slotted into the gap.

Even if people on here did say it was legal, surely to goodness you know this would be completely irresponsible. Don't you?

I'm not a police officer but it should be obvious that there's no way that's legal and even if it was, there's no way I'd be allowing my child/children to go in a car with a person who thinks it is.

Risky how? One adult can manage 2 6 year olds and 2 4 year olds.

Maybe she's happy with this arrangement but it wouldn't be legal, nor would the kids be safe in event of a crash. You don't need legal people to help you with this. For future reference, in any kind of child-in-the-car situation, they need a seat belt each, and an age/weight appropriate car seat or booster. You can find out more here

How does she expect any of these children to survive a car crash? 😯
To keep children safe in a car, strap them in as though you expect someone to crash into you and you are confident they'd be kept safe!.
The 4 year olds need a car seat each and the 6 year olds need a car seat or a booster properly fastened in

Appropriate child seat/booster in front passenger seat but will need the airbag turning off, two largest car seats in outer seats in rear & smallest in the middle if it will fit in the only way 4 children will fit in a car & it will have to be a larger model as otherwise the rear seat won't be wide enough for 3 seats. I struggled in a Seat Leon with 3 seats/boosters in the back when we had late dp's children & ds.

It’s not the legality you should be worrying about it’s the safety of young children if you have an accident.

Even if it was allowable (which it is not), it is very dangerous. In a crash the straps would not be able to distribute the crash forces evenly. In fact, even a twisted seat belt strap can't distribute the forces correctly. I'm talking lethal neck injuries.

They all need to be in booster seats, so obviously it’s illegal but not just that, it’s not safe.

nope. The way we managed this was 3 across the back and one in the front. Thankfully my 9yo no longer needs a booster which gives a little bit more room but still means we can't have 2 adults in the car.

This takes me back to 90's, four children would sit in the back of the car sharing two seatbelts. It's seriously unsafe though.

It's against the law to for children of that age to not be in a car seat.

I think airbags only go off if rear facing car seats - check the instructions for yours OP and make it clear to the driver what is needed!

I may have misunderstood what you are saying here, but air bags go off because they go off. The car doesn't know what seats are in the front of the car.

A front facing car seat in the front is still dangerous, just not quite as dangerous as a rear facing one. A child too close to an air bag is dangerous.

'Go off' as in 'be turned off', manually. If a rear facing car seat is used in the front seat, you must turn the airbag off. If you have a car which does no allow you the facility to turn off the passenger seat airbag then you must not use a rear facing car seat there.

@knittingaddict my car has an off for the front passenger airbag in the glove box. Put the key in the slot and turn it off.

Me too!

They need to still be in boosters fgs. The 4 year old should still be in a car seat. Of course it's not legal and it's certainly not safe.

Ah, "go off" as in turn off, not as in "explode". That makes more sense. 😀Sorry for the derail.

I'm not a police officer but a quick online search will tell you that this is not legal or safe. I'm assuming you have access to Google?

When I was a child we had a volvo estate with fold down seats in the boot. Dad or Mum used to lift them up and two of us sat on them. No seat belts.
I got thrown from the back seat to the front of a friends brothers Morris Traveller when I was six. No seat belts and tip up seats. He went round a corner and met a tractor. Slammed on the brakes and I went sailing from the back through the middle and hit my head on the dashboard. I don't drive but have always made sure that ds2 is secure in a car!

That’s crazy, who’d think that was safe?

So, let us suppose it were somehow legal for two children to share a belt. Purely hypothetically. Would you be OK with it? Do you not use your own judgement? Do you need the government to make every single risk assessment for you?

Yeah, it’ll be fine OP. Friend can always have a couple of glasses of to calm her nerves on the day too.