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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Reception child on school trip in front seat of parents car with airbag

117 replies

aintnomountainhighenough · 04/07/2008 22:33

I would like other mumsnetters thoughts on a situation that has happened today that I am very upset about. My DD has been on a school outing. I offered to drive but was told there were enough parents driving to take the children to and from the venue. My DD told me tonight that she was in a car with 2 other children and was sat in the front seat. Alarm bells started ringing, I never let my children sit in the front. I popped around to see the parent who she came home with and have found that she was put in the front seat of a car with an airbag, she was 'chosen' because she was the tallest. The TA who put the child in the front of the car took the child of the mum who was driving my DD in the back of her car. To say I am upset is an understatement. Of course I will raise this on Monday but what am I over reacting. Opinions please.

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lackaDAISYcal · 04/07/2008 22:51

slarty...booster seats are classed as child restraints

SlartyBartFast · 04/07/2008 22:52

oh yes

LaylaandSethsmum · 04/07/2008 22:53

I guess someones child had to sit in the front seat and it happened to be your child. If it were my child then no, I would not be upset or angry, I don't know if it would actually have occured to me tbh.

Original poster

aintnomountainhighenough · 04/07/2008 22:54

sac - yes and don't think I havent thought about this tonight. Of course I have. However I expect parents/helpers who are taking children on a trip to take the safest option. This is by far the riskiest option. Also I am asking myself why the child of the mum who was driving my DD was in the back of car driven by the TA who made the decision to put my DD in the front.

Don't get me wrong, nothing has happened. However the consequences of this are huge if something did happen and I don't want this another child to travel in this way. Personally I would never put any of my children or anyones elses in the front seat of my car.

OP posts:

SlartyBartFast · 04/07/2008 22:54

good point about the airbags in the doors at the back.
airbags surely are for safety ?

lackaDAISYcal · 04/07/2008 22:55

L&Ssmum, I think the concern is them suffocating as the front airbag will hit them in the face, so if the seat is as far back as possible, this sceanrio is less likely.

I think as it was a one off journey, it was probably OK, however you should perhaps mention to the school that you were unhappy that your DD was placed in a less safe environment and that they should have allowed for additional drivers as volunteered, in fact, by you.

GivePeasAChance · 04/07/2008 22:55

The only reason I would be concerned would be if it was dangerous. I don't think it is and seems the law is slightly ambiguous.

strawberriesandcream01 · 04/07/2008 22:57

yes i understand where you are coming from. The part about the other child being put in another car. As you can see though from alot of the posts, many people didn't know how wrong this can be so maybe the teachers and mum dont know the consequences? Yes maybe you should bring it up with the school and tell them how dangerous it can be.

lackaDAISYcal · 04/07/2008 22:57

I can't believe they didn't provide a minibus or bus with proper seat belts tbh. If our school goes anywhere, they always organise a bus, even if it's only to the local library which is a 5 minute drive away. I would be more concerned about the liability insurance implications of letting parents take them in their private cars.

LaylaandSethsmum · 04/07/2008 22:58

Yes I absolutely see the need for the seat to be in the furthest back position there is as this would be safest anyway as if too close and no airbag or airbag deactivated the child would probably smack their head on the dashboard. Airbags deflate very quickly though I would think suffocation is highly unlikely.

Hulababy · 04/07/2008 22:59

Airbags are considered dangerous for little ones due to the speed they are released. If they hit you at full impact they can cause burning (by brother suffered this) and on a little child this can be quite severe. But worse still the impact, if hit in chest or face, on a little child, can result in far wors injuries, some fatal. This can be an issue for shorter adults too if they sit too close to the steering wheel.

There are occasions when I have to put DD in the front of my car. But I always turn off my airbag and have the seat as far back as possible.

Heifer · 04/07/2008 22:59

Found this on netdoctors..

Why are airbags dangerous for children?

Airbags were made to protect adults weighing about 75kg. They are very powerful when they are inflated and they are placed so low that a child placed in front of an airbag may suffocate or be severely injured by the impact of a rapidly inflating airbag.

If your child is younger than 12 years, they must never sit in a front-seat with an active airbag in front of them. When your child is over 12 and wants to sit in the front seat, move the seat as far back as possible.

A child seat must never be fitted in the front passenger seat if the car has a passenger side airbag. Some cars enable the driver to switch off the airbag. But it should be switched on again when an adult is using the seat.

Original poster

aintnomountainhighenough · 04/07/2008 23:02

All. Yes I have learnt a lesson here, my DD will not ever be getting in the car of another parent. Sorry if that sounds like paranoid parenting but clearly other parents are out of touch with what is safe and what is not. I find it laughable that the teacher did the walk to do a risk assessment yet the highest risk was probably my DD travelling back! I don't want to be preachy but it is dangerous to sit a child in the front seat with an airbag eploding in their face in the event of an accident, the could be permantly scared or killed by it Airbags are also quite dangerous to women who sit too close to the steering wheel.

OP posts:

strawberriesandcream01 · 04/07/2008 23:02

Yes i agree with this but how can they say a 12yr old? Why not an 11 yr old or 13 yr old?

SlartyBartFast · 04/07/2008 23:05

it must have been cost saving - my dc's school do this, you could raise the comments made here with them - hopefully they will make it compulsory not to seat children in the front in a car with airbags seeing some of this information.

SaintGeorge · 04/07/2008 23:05

Based on 75KG I had better start sitting in the back seat

LaylaandSethsmum · 04/07/2008 23:07

Strawberreis - I guess the 12 yrs old thing comes from the law that booster seats onyl apply until that age.

Aintnomountain - You asked for opinions on wether other parents would be worried about this situation , I said I probably wouldn't be but I guess that makes me terribly out of touch.

morocco · 04/07/2008 23:07

sounds a good idea. there is no way on earth I would volunteer to drive anyone else's child to/from a school situation for precisely this kind of reason. I don't want to get involved in all this kind of thing in rl. I also wouldn't let my children go in other people's cars to/from school trips unless it was a friend as a favour rather than as a 'volunteer'. I'd take them myself as I'm quite fussy! and put my own kids on the 'most dangerous' seat - ie lap belt or front seat depending on my car.

Heifer · 04/07/2008 23:09

Thanks for the thread as it has made me realise how many other mums would put DD in the front of their cars in good faith, thinking it was safe.

It will certainly make me mention to them if they do take DD anywhere that I would like her to be put in the back of the car with a car seat or to let me know and I can make other arrangements.

I have never let DD (4.5) go in the front and just assumed others did the same, but if you are not aware of the dangers then understandable really.

dilbertina · 04/07/2008 23:11

but an average 8/9 yo on a booster will be a similiar height to air-bag as a 12 yo with no booster....why is it so much more dangerous?

morocco · 04/07/2008 23:12

tbh I think there is a distinction between 'the safer option' and 'the legal option' and, as Heifer says, it is worth mentioning your preferences. round here you'd be lucky to get them sat on a booster seat with seatbelt on, front or back seat

LaylaandSethsmum · 04/07/2008 23:14

You're right Morroco but any website will only define within the law which goes up to 12.

SlartyBartFast · 04/07/2008 23:15

that is a fair point about the booster seat, it raises the height of the child, thereby making it "safer"

Original poster

aintnomountainhighenough · 04/07/2008 23:15

Thanks everyone, I do hope this has raised awareness. This evening I think to myself - why would I let my child get into a car of someone I don't really know. It won't happen again and I will be complaining to the school. Personally I feel they have breached their duty of care to my child.

OP posts:

pinkteddy · 05/07/2008 00:08

aintnomountain I think you are entirely right to be upset and I am shocked to be honest at how many people had no idea it wasn't safe for kids under 12 to sit in the front. My car has a no kids (red circle with cross through it) in front sticker on the passenger door and has airbag underneath in capitals. A friend of mine is a mechanic and he says very few cars have the facility to turn the air bag off. There was a car accident in front of my house recently - someone backed out of their drive into a passing car, the car was driving about 30 mph and the impact of the airbag broke the driver's arm.

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