Proper Use

I didn’t want to go there a few days ago, but now I do.  Add it to the “Teary-eyed” list: I’ve almost cried (many times) recently because I saw a child improperly restrained in the car.  I’m not talking about the chest clip being too high or even a 1 year-old forward facing.  I’m talking about things like a 1 year-old in a forward facing car seat and not harnessed in (making me wonder if the seat was attached to the car).  Things like a no older than 3 year old standing up between the front seats pulling into the parking lot at Sugarplum’s gymnastics.  Things like seeing the back of a 7-8 year old child’s head again the window as I went 70 mph down the Florida Turnpike.  Things like a baby facing forward in an infant/bucket seat that is made to only face backwards.

I’ve already argued best practice in “Car Seat Fanatic” and “Continuing Car Seat Safety”.  I’ve also argued physics and physiology in  “The Reality of Child Restraints”.  Maybe those things can be ignored, so I’ll provide one more argument for how important child passenger safety is: legalities.

Each state in the US has its own specific child passenger safety laws (which can be found at http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/childsafety_laws.html or you can google “child passenger laws in ___” to find your specific law).  While many laws are far below the standards of what is considered best practice, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recommendation to rear-face children as long as possible and to use a convertible seat rear facing if the child meets the rear facing requirements, they non-the-less are the laws of the lands and must be followed.

Just like anything else, some states are better than others.  My own, unfortunately, is one of the worst, only requiring children to be properly restrained through the age of 5 and allowing the use of a booster starting at age 3, HOWEVER, the most important part of the lack-luster law is the part stating any person transporting a child is responsible for “properly using” a child restraint.  Many states have proper use laws meaning you must use your child restraint per the manufacturer guidelines.  For example, the car seat Sugarplum currently uses in hubby’s car (Safety 1^st OnSide Air–pictured below) requires a child to be over 1 year, 22 pounds AND 34 inches to forward face meaning she could not have LEGALLY (not to mention safely) forward faced in her seat until she was over 2 because she was not yet 34 inches or 22 pounds.  (At 3 she was only 36″ and 24 pounds and therefore has stayed rear facing).

 Technically, in our state, Doodle must be rear-facing as no seat sold in the US allows for forward facing before 1 year AND 20 pounds (and he is neither) but Sugarplum could be forward facing and Honeybun could be in just the vehicle seat belt (with no booster) but just because the law says they can doesn’t mean it’s the safest thing.  Florida law also says I can leave my child unattended in a vehicle for up to 15 minutes but that doesn’t mean I would.  Very often, the laws are behind the science but at the very least I would expect people to follow the laws of their state.