Here's a novel idea. How about let the PARENTS decide what level of safety precautions they will take for their own children?
I don’t know how my kids survived me!
So if I have a two seat car or pickup truck am I allowed to transport the kiddies in a car seat?
Oh dear God. Where are the kids going to put their FEET? Remember a while back these safety idiots claiming that even teenagers needed to sit in booster seats?
Leftists believe that enough laws, the right COMBINATION of laws will insure that no one EVER dies of anything except abortion and euthanasia when they cease to be of use to the collective.
This is dumb. Most children can barely fit in rear-facing car seats at age 1.
How the hell can they reach the steering wheel if they’re facing BACKWARDS?
OMG! Where’s the law to make us safe?
Everybody panic!
And spend lots and lots of stimulus money! Quick! Quick!
We’re all gonna die!
/johnny
Maybe those old supertanker-sized station wagons with the rear-facing back seat were onto something besides making kids carsick. (Well, they always made me carsick.)
}:-)4
This is just information, not a mandate. As parent, and a grandparent, let me be the first to say that as parents we don't decide the level of safety precautions we will take for our own children in the dark. We use information like this to make our determinations, and it's welcome.
The “there ought to be a law” folks are at it again.
Of course, they don’t say anything about keeping pregnant women away from Planned Parenthood, now do they?
Silly hypocrites.
I’d love for them to show photos of even 50th percentile children of 12-24 months, showing how they would fit into a rear-facing child seat. Not to mention how parents are supposed to get them in and out (such as when sleeping). It’s a back-breaking contortionist exercise already.
When I was a kid (way back when), my parents didn’t even dream of using the seat belts in the car. When they were forced to put on the brakes or stop suddenly my brother and I just sort of rolled around in the interior of the car! We managed to survive somehow.
And birds are safest when kept in cages...
As it is its ludicrous that most states mandate children be in saftey seats until they are 8 years old or older.
Safest way to survive an automobile accident is to not be in one, so lets just ban automobiles and be done with it.
They seem unaware of the fact that a two year old might just POSSIBLY want to see where the car is going and what’s coming up the road.
It’s not much fun looking out the rear window all the time. And how are the kids going to play various “spot the car” games?
File this under “duh”. Regardless of any legal requirements, standard advice has long been “continue to keep them rear-facing as long as you can get away with it, then use a full-back front-facing seat with a 5-point harness as long as you can get away with that.”
The simple truth is that by the time most kids are 1 year old, they become practically impossible to ride in a car with if they’re not front-facing due to sheer boredom.
Then keep them in booster seats until they are 21!
Gotta love how the Leftists are infantilizing our culture.
How long should they really wear that diaper? Maybe we should ask Al Franken!
In my opion the child is ‘safest’ when the driver can see them as needed and is not worried they might have found something to choke on. A distracted driver is a poor driver and kids scream a lot more when they can see mommy and daddy.
Wow, I am surprised about all of the negative comments on this post. Scoffing at safety precautions is easy to do when you and your loved ones have been lucky enough to have a long, healthy, accident-free life.
I understand the aversion to government “getting in people’s business.” But an aversion to general safety tips that can keep your child safe? That I don’t understand. What is the big deal about strapping your child in a car seat properly? I am not one to want to wrap my kids in bubble wrap, but sheesh! If positioning the car seat properly has been shown to be safer, why would I scoff at that?
As for their legs being squished, a poster over at cnn put it like this: broken legs = cast; broken neck = casket.
And a mirror for $15 at Target solves the problem of not being able to see your child while you are in the car.
With all the maniacs texting while driving and fiddling with their GPSs, I’m making sure my kids are as safe as they can be when we go in the car and I, for one, appreciate this kind of research.
There is no way I’m waiting until my babies are two. We made it to 11 months with the last one before we turned him around. He was way too long to stay backwards. He was eating his knees. It was ridiculous. One size does not fit all.