To chat to the school/ nursery about car seat safety

[Bizkwit]

I’m prepared to be called out on this but on my daily school and nursery run I see lots and lots of kids in really dangerous car seat or lack of car seat situations.

To name a few, kids (young ks1) without car seats bundled in the back
thick coats and car seats
car seats not strapped in but just put in the back (yes I saw an infant carrier not strapped in)
forward facing very young
forward facing in the front seat (again ks1 kids)
kids sitting on their parents laps and driving away
kids (again young)sitting without a seat in the front, or sitting on a lap in the front

they do all sorts of news bulletins on the importance of healthy eating, dental check ups, vaccines, reading etc etc. Maybe they could do one on car seat safety?

i think back to how I wasn’t sure on positioning my first in their infant carrier it wasn’t until someone gently told me that I fixed it, thank god something didn’t happen, but sometimes you don’t know until your told.

i know for most parents they probably don’t know or think because certain seats are sold that they must be safe and it’s probably short drives but accidents can happen anywhere. I know it might not change loads but it could help a few people out?

yay or nay?

I completely understand that sometimes people need gentle reminders. When my nephew (a couple of months younger than my own Ds) was born, he used to wear thick coats in the car until I mentioned this isn’t recommended to his parents.

However, the things you’ve described aren’t simple mistakes or parents not knowing, they are a blatant lack of safety and show no regard to their child’s safety. Do I think a polite notice will make these parents suddenly care that they are putting their children in danger? No.

I’d still mention it though. Maybe there are other concerns with the children and if other agencies are involved, the school might want to report it as a safeguarding concern.

If the school does a lot of PSAs about healthy or safety stuff it is a great idea for a future topic so I’d definitely bring it up as a suggestion.

That said, I’m not sure about some of your examples, excluding the really obvious ones like kids on laps or no seats at all. Mostly I’m wondering how with isofix you can even tell whether a seat is secured? You have to look at the connectors close up to check they’re green, not something you could see with a glance into a stranger’s car. Also are you sure that the unstrapped in baby carrier wasn’t on a base for instance? And boosters, which most school kids are using, are just secured by the seatbelt going round the child (when they do have isofix it’s just to stop the seat flying around when the child isn’t in it). It’s also legal to put a car seat in the front and often necessary if there are 3+ kids, or could be for other reasons like car sickness.

So I probably wouldn’t mention a lot of that when you talk to the school! But it is still a really good idea.

It is difficult. I am sure your intention is good but in the vast majority of cases people are aware of best practice, and choose to take their own risk based judgement.

In addition, not all your cases are clear cut.

To name a few, kids (young ks1) without car seats bundled in the back it is not illegal to do this with a child over 3, for unexpected car journeys or if there is no room for another car seat.
thick coats and car seats - most people know this but this one you could suggest thet remind parents of.
car seats not strapped in but just put in the back (yes I saw an infant carrier not strapped in) my infant carrier was isofix and unless you were having a proper nosy a foot away you wouldnt have seen. Lots if high back boosters also aren't strapped in, they are held by the seat belt.
forward facing very young define very young? A child over 15 months can be forward facing.
forward facing in the front seat (again ks1 kids) - not illegal. What do you think people do in a small car with a 6 year old, a 3 year old and a baby? The youngest go in the back.
kids sitting on their parents laps and driving away ive never, ever seen this and i can't believe you're seeing it often.
kids (again young)sitting without a seat in the front, or sitting on a lap in the front a child over 135cm can be without a car seat in the front. My son is ok track to be that height at age 7 & in year 2.

When I did a antenatal course there was a chap from the local fire bridge who came out to do a talk on this very thing (because fire brigade attend major RTAs). It terrified me, all the awful things he had seen, and I took car seat safety very seriously after that.

Halfords staff are trained too; maybe they would have some information to hand out.

So the infant carrier wasn’t isofix either, it was just in the middle middle bunged in, face sideways

I can’t say how old the kid was because you can ff in some seats if the kid is 9kg but, they looked around 1. But that’s the distinction between legal and safe. Some people just don’t know. Same with 3 in the back and no car seats, just because it’s legal isn’t make it safe. What people do with 3 kids in a small car, is a rf car seat in the front with the airbag off and the 2 other seats in the back or buy a bigger car.

the kid wasn’t over 135 around the same height as my child 100cm… but really unsafe the dashboard and air bag can kill.

Just wanted to comment that you sound like a really decent person who cares about the safety of children you don’t even know ❤️

Oh and kid on lap and driving away, maybe twice

I think it’s fine to ask school to put out awareness about eg coats in car seats (lots of people genuinely don’t know this) and things that are against the law eg children on laps but the forward facing and front seat/ rear seat parts could come across as the school being a bit preachy and disenfranchise certain parents.

Im totally with you in the safety of FF/RF by the way but schools have to tread carefully about how they engage with parents.

I agree it can be a bit preachy as it makes it seem everyone needs to get a £350 Swedish seat which not everyone has the budget for but people might genuinely not be aware it’s safer and how much safer, but I agree it’s a tricky one to navigate.

i think the front seat people might not know too, and how dangerous it can be, most cars say you can’t have a car seat in the front unless it’s rf and the airbag is off, both the airbag and the dashboard can be deadly

Might be better to see if a local PCSO or safety org/council can hang around at pick up and give advice.

You could try, but in my experience those parents don't give a fuck. They're the ones who park illegally on the pavement, drive while using phone etc as well.

You could contact Good Egg Safety or Child Seat Safety Limited - they have some educational materials that the nursery could hand out or display, and they offer training too - but this obviously would need funding.

I agree that some parents just don't care about car safety, but I think there is also a genuine "blind spot" among (some) of this generation of parents, to do with the rule change about booster seats in 2003. Previous to this, car seats were only required up to the age of 3 and after this you could just use a normal seatbelt. Booster seats weren't totally uncommon but most people ditched them by about age 5/6 if that. 2003 was the start of the rule about booster seats being required up to age 12 (or 135cm), which many people found laughable/ridiculous.

So if you were aged under 12 in 2003, then you're in your 20s/early 30s now and probably take it for granted that car seats are required because that's what your childhood experience was. There was a lot of publicity about it at the time, so most parents and children knew about the new law.

But if you were 13+ but hadn't had your own children yet then you might well have been unaware. Those people are now in their 30s and 40s and a lot have nursery/primary aged children. They're not as old as the generations that don't remember using car seats at all, but they probably remember using them until about 4/5/6 years old, booster seats were seen as something for early primary.

If you used a booster seat yourself as a child, then you'd probably do that automatically for your kids.

If you never used a booster seat, but you're aware that they exist now, you'll probably ask in a shop or look up online what the rules are about using booster seats.

But if you're in that middle generation that used booster seats but stopped by mid primary school, you might well do the same thing automatically too, and not realise that it's now illegal.