to think my neighbour should use the car seat for her child?

[BuzzingNoise]

My neighbour has a two year old DS. My neighbour drives and so has a car seat in the back seat of her car. Regularly, however, when she drives to see her parents, she puts her DS in the front seat of the car. She puts the adult seat belt on him, but (because he is small) only the lap section is around him.

Her parents do only live around the corner (literally, it's just a one minute walk trhough an footpath, as opposed to a two minute drive) so she could walk, but that's a different issue.

She must be thinking that it's only around the corner so it's ok, but I remember seeing statistics a while ago that a huge proportion of car accidents happen within a mile of home.

AIBU, should she make the effort to strap her child into the car seat, no matter how short the journey?

She should strap him into the car seat. It's the law for one thing, and for aother even a minor bump could seriously injure, possibly evem kill a 2 year old, who wasn't properly restrained.
Also are there airbags in the front?

the very fact that it is "just around the corner" means your neighbour is probably more complacent in her driving and also more likely to have an accident.

One easy or not so easy solution would be to pass her car make model and registration plate onto the local community police officer or PCSO's and let them have a word with her.

I suspect there are airbags as it is a fairly new car, but I suppose they could be turned off.

You're so right, Outnumbered. She probably is more complacent.

I'll have a think about the police idea. She wouldn't get into trouble, though, would she? I just want the little boy to be safe.

she would get quite a talking too yes but if they suspect that she does it habitually they would slap her with a fine (£30 - £60 i think) but what price a child's life?

[shock} Didn't think people still did things like that . I'm with outnumbered on this one.

yanbu and you are right that a lot of accidents happen within a short radius of home, for this exact reason!

def talk to your local pcso if you have one

talk to the local pcso.

yanbu.... we put dd in the car seat to drive to the other end of asdas car park (theres a few shops share the same car park)