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MNHQ

Mumsnet on Jeremy Vine tomorrow talking car seat legislation - your views please!

92 replies

carriemumsnet · 12/09/2006 17:08

Hi all

We've been called by Jeremy Vine show to talk about new car seat legislation. Their interest was sparked by this article from the Times

There will be a govt minister and an 11 year old reluctant to return to his booster. Would love to hear your views so I can pass them on.

Do you think they should have introduced a law?
Do you think it's enforcable?
Have you seen the leaflet and is it clear to you what you need to do?
Are you worried about persuading your child that they have to go back into a car seat?

Thanks in advance

OP posts:

saltire · 12/09/2006 19:49

Oh and i forgot to add, i haven't seen any leaflet, or even been aware of any TV campain, if there was one

SpaceCadet · 12/09/2006 19:53

i wonder if this law will apply to the people i constantly see who pack the whole family into a car, with every adult having a small child on their laps.

sorrell · 12/09/2006 19:53

Like the idea of cool seats for older kids with integral MP3 players and DVDs - like first class airline seats! I want one!

lemonaid · 12/09/2006 19:54

I think the law is quite a good idea. I also think it's enforceable, but I don't think it will be enforced. Cod has said that as a magistrate she's never dealt with a case relating to a breach of the existing child seat and seatbelt legislation, yet we all know that that is regularly flouted. And there doesn't seem to be much enforcement of the mobile phone rules, which would be pathetically easy to enforce properly. Why would this be any different?

pooka · 12/09/2006 19:58

I am only aware of the new laws because I have younger children, and have recently moved dd up to a seat/booster and ds into her old car seat, ditching the baby seat along the way. As we are currently getting a new car the potential to get three car seats/ boosters in a row has been a consideration and so have deliberately bought a car with a flat row of seats for this purpose.
Have also seen news items but can completely understand why some people might still be unaware of the changes.
BIL is a policeman and said he was fed up of "New Labour" laws. So he won't be getting a booster for his 9 year old dd. I think that is completely ridiculous and while I can see the financial considerations involving compliance, I cannot understand why people would not agree that a law aiming to reduce injuries to children is a good thing. I only hope that the police actively use their new powers to on-the-spot fine but am not holding out hopes that they'll be tough enough to change the minds of steadfast refusers - after all, the law against driving while talking on your mobile phone seems not to have dissuaded many drivers I see daily carrying on regardless.

serenity · 12/09/2006 19:59

Space cadet, I think there is a separate law dealing with overcrowding that is coming in to force either May 2007 or 2008 (can't remember exactly) so that should stop that, but I have to say I always thought it was illegal (or at least invalidated your insurance) anyway.

hulababy · 12/09/2006 20:00

Have to say that older, but smaller children really do need car seats. As a shorter than average adult - I am 5 feet exactly - I find adult seat belts, especially in the back of cars, way too high. They cut into my neck and do not fit as they should. If it is like that for me, as an adult, I wouldn't want my child put in a similar situation.

PeachyClairHasBadHair · 12/09/2006 20:04

There were leaflets in Asda.

I managed to egt 3 into my proton persona, the existing Britax for the little one amd some Graco seats for the DS's. They weren't impressed until they realised they now have cup holders

Cost quite a lot of money though, and if we hadn't been given it as a gift then I don't know how we'd have managed. DS2 gfoes up to the next seat type in january and there was a serious temptation to resist, in the end we made it universal and we know it's worth it.

best friend of mine is 4' 4". DS's want to know if she needs a seat (she's 34 LOL)

marthamoo · 12/09/2006 20:10

Haven't read the whole thread but my take on it is this: if you have an older child who is now used to travelling without any kind of child seat (Sobernow's "cool, streetwise, 10 yo") then, yes, you are possibly going to have a fight on your hands to get them back in a car seat. I kind of think well, tough - it's the law, you're the parent. If, like me, your child at 10 is still in a car seat and thus you've never had that argument as it hasn't occured to him there's an alternative..well, then you get to feel all smug and "told you so"

It's got to be a good thing - if younger children who are in a car seat now just grow up knowing they will be in some kind of child restraint until age 12/135cm then it takes the element of choice out of it. Up til now it's been a completely grey area as to when they stop using a seat.

I hope it's enforced - I hope that an under 12 travelling without a car seat becomes as unacceptable as travelling in a car without a seatbelt is (and I'm old enough to remember when that legislation was brought in - and how many people didn't wear seatbelts before it - and how many moaned about the new legislation too...but I rarely see adults without seatbelts these days; it's just become the norm to buckle up).

satine · 12/09/2006 20:14

I am horrified by the sight of any child (as opposed to a young person, which some 11/12 year olds are) who isn't in an appropriate car seat, so therefore I don't need this legislation. The people who do need it are sadly the ones who apparently couldn't give a toss anyway, and so will ignore it.

satine · 12/09/2006 20:16

Hey, saltire, I just read your post - I was a military policewoman until I had my ds!

MerlinsBeard · 12/09/2006 20:19

only read the OP so, sorry if its already been said but i am glad there is a new law! Would rather my boys felt stupid sitting in a booster at 11 (they are 3 and 17 months at mo) than looked a bit dead on the road!

Hate seeing children without even an adult belt on. I don;t think that there should be an allowance for short journeys either, my boys know that no car seat means we don;t go/they don;t go.

I didn;t have a car when i was growing up but when i was in a friends i always had to sit in the booster until i was in high school so that the seat belt fitted properly. Assumed it was already law tbh

(as an aside i read the title wrong and thought MN was on Jeremy KYLE!)

DominiConnor · 12/09/2006 21:35

mumofmonsters is bang on the money here. School runs are usually short hops.
But I wish someone would disagree with me that this is a Blairite "sending a message" law, rather than one that should be enforced.

LIZS · 12/09/2006 21:40

It isn't purely a Blair law though, but the UK Govt legislating an EU Directive which is based upon common sense. Whether the police and courts have the resources to enforce it I'm not so sure. Will be expecting to see police cars on the school exit gate come Monday afternoon!

FluffyCharlotteCorday · 12/09/2006 21:49

I don't really understand the objections to it. Keeping a child alive and as unhurt as possible in an accident is the priority and the idea that it will be difficult for parents to enforce because of kids not wanting to be laughed at says more about those parents than the law itself. Also agree with DC that the easiest way to make a carseat attractive to a kid is to put a Star Wars/ Batman/ Harry Potter/ Barbie cover on it.

Yes of course it's enforcable, like all the other laws that are enforcable but not enforced.

Haven't seen the leaflet, but then, I never actually needed the government to tell me that a child should be kept in a car-seat as long as it fits in one because that's the safest option.

No not worried about persuading 11 year old as don't have one (oldest is 7). But tbh was always intending that children should sit in car seats as long as they fit in them, whether they like it or not. I'm always astounded by how utterly uninformed so many people are about the dangers of not restraining a child appropriately in a car.

lilymolly · 12/09/2006 22:07

grandparent issue with seats is the main issue for me, and what happens if someone needs to pick up child from school other than yourself for some reason.
I love Jeremy Too!!

kittywits · 12/09/2006 22:48

That's just what my mum has said to me on the phone. I said well I guess we'll have to buy some more for you car. Then she swore something unrepeatable about pc correctness. I said I agreed. If I wanted to kill my children it was my business.
Obviously I use boosters and seats with all of mine, but it should be my business not the governments. They'll be telling us what to call our children next. Probably no good old fashioned English names incase it upsets other racial groups. Sorry, this government makes me mad, had you guessed!!

TinyGang · 12/09/2006 23:07

I cannot get three booster seats in the back of my car and the front seat has an airbag which I can't switch off. Loads of people must be in this situation. Where's the advice and a tv campaign? I only knew legislation was changing in some way from mn.

How tall must the child be before it comes out of a high backed chair and into a booster?

The new regulations are not clear - what does the part about 'short journeys' mean? You can have an accident on a short journey too.

Confused, confused, confused.

SparklyGothKat · 12/09/2006 23:24

My 3 children (8,6 and 4) are all still is hi-back boosters seats, but that because DS and Dd1 have Cerebral palsy and can;t sit properably anyway. So I won't have any problems with the new law.

monkeytrousers · 12/09/2006 23:35

I think JV is a nobhead...sorry

northender · 12/09/2006 23:38

I'm with you monkeytrousers!

monkeytrousers · 12/09/2006 23:46

yay!

JoolsToo · 12/09/2006 23:58

on what basis?

kittywits · 13/09/2006 06:31

I really disike his tine of voice and his method of questioning. He always tries to goad people. Never sounds sympathetic. He annoys me so much I have to turn off the radio wqhen he's on. He makes every subject he 'discusses' sound so facile.

SueW · 13/09/2006 06:51

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

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