Coach transfer with baby

[jackiesgirl]

First time travelling abroad with a baby - we’re not planning to hire a car for our holiday, but what happens with an airport coach transfer and car seats? Do we need to bring it or just sit him on our lap? He will be just turned 1 when we travel

In a crash between a coach and a taxi I know which one I’d rather my child was in, car seat or no car seat.

are you travelling with a package tour? If so check and see if they have a seat allocated for your dc because if they don’t there may be no space for a car seat even if it fits. I have seen carriers strapped in (the coaches I’ve been on had 3 point seatbelts) but I e also seen dc on laps and very full buses.

Quite a long fall for a baby if a coach rolls upside and you let go or lose your grip in the impact. I woild prefer my child be restrained adequately in the event of an accident and not thrown through a window or down the aisle of a coach.

If a coach had a head-on collision with a normal size car at any speed car seat restraint in the car would be irrelevant. Most people on this thread don’t appreciate the degree to which being in a larger vehicle makes you safer in any kind of vehicle-on-vehicle collision.

I’m not saying it’s batshit advice to take a child on a coach ever, it’s batshit advice to claim that a coach or large vehicle forms a protective layer and miraculously keeps a child safe. Everybody has their own risk tolerances but at least let’s be honest about the facts.

Yes a coach will decelerate slightly more slowly than a car but even at 30mph it’s not going to be rolling slowly to a stop, be realistic. It’s unlikely a parent will be able to hold on safely to a child in a collision that happens without warning (which they almost all do). Surely you can see there’s a potential for serious injury even at low speeds. A tram is completely different, it goes a lot more slowly and is on a track!

Motorway travel isn’t particularly safer, it can actually be less safe due to the high speeds. There’s a very sad recent case in the UK where a child died in a UK coach crash and that child was a teenager wearing a seatbelt not an unrestrained infant.

I’d book a private transfer and a car seat, or hire a car and car seat, there’s no way I’d have my baby on a coach with no car seat.

In a similar situation we booked a private transfer and used a car seat.

I agree with pp, could you upgrade to the transfer car and book the car seat? We've done both and found it much better than being in a coach that stops and starts constantly whilst dropping people off at their hotels. It also means you can relax a little more and get through the airport etc at your own pace.

And what if the coach has a collision with something larger like a lorry or another coach. Or what if...as has been the case in the last 3 coach crashes I have seen in the last year.....the coach comes off the road and rolls down a hill. You are basing your advice on one very small scenario.

And so are you. Which is why it's for everyone to make their own risk assessment.

I did not use the term protective layer originally, and would not use that term, but the poster who did originally use it is correct that the effects of a collision are lesser in a larger vehicle, not because of any magic/miracle, but because of the way forces in a collision transfer to the occupants of any vehicle.

Yes it is true there are crashes where the coach being large is irrelevant - this is why everyone can make their own risk assessment, as long as we are all in agreement about the facts. (Restrained = safer than unrestrained, restraining baby safely on coach = difficult/maybe impossible, coach crashes involving conditions where restraint type matters = rarer than in a car, but not impossible.)

Would a seatbelt extender like those used for lap infants on a plane mitigate some of the risks. Not sure about the feasibility of finding a crash tested one, but just a thought.

We used coach transfer when DS was small - we had go a backpack which was also a booster seat and then found the only 3 point seatbelt on the bus and used it.

Ring or email travel provider or coach company doing transfer and ask.

In the event of a head on collision with an HGV at speed you’re much better off in a coach, restrained or not. Because, in a taxi having a head on collision with an HGV on any sort of fast road, everybody in the taxi will die. The car seat is irrelevant.

Depending on where you're going, if you end up booking a taxi and requesting a baby/child seat, be very wary. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw what thr local Spanish taxi company provided for my 18-mth old (admittedly 10+ years ago), when I'd specifically booked a car seat suitable for that age group.

In terms of general car seat advice, yes we all make our own risk assessments but I've been happy to let the very knowledgeable @BertieBotts make most of it for me in relation to car seats over the last ten years!