Unrestrained children - shame on parents!

Gwynston

I am shocked and angered by the number of children I see in the backs of cars not wearing seatbelts. :eek: Why on earth would a parent get into a car and put on their seatbelt while leaving their children in the back to get thrown around in an accident? Bloody hypocrites! :mad:

I'm a father with two young children still in baby seats and I simply cannot fathom other parents a couple of years down the line deciding one day that their kids are too big for the baby seats, so it's obviously perfectly safe from then on to let them jump about on the back seat unrestrained. :rolleyes:

Why aren't rear seat belts enforced, like front ones are?

Mitch Connor

they are enforced like front seatbelts - if you are stopped and seen to not be wearing a seatbelt, in front or in the back, you'd get done for it.

Stark

Maybe the kids took off the seatbelts themselves once the parents started driving?

And I was under the impression that rear seat belts were enforced just as front ones were.

Gwynston

Tauren wrote:

they are enforced like front seatbelts - if you are stopped and seen to not be wearing a seatbelt, in front or in the back, you'd get done for it.

OK, point taken. That last line was probably a moot question. What I really want to ask is: Why oh why would a parent leave a child unrestrained?

I know what being a parent is like - you're almost constantly trying to stop your kids getting into dangerous situations, so why in a car would you suddenly forget about all the dangers and deliberately put your kids at more risk?

ZiabR

The first thing i would do when people and kids get into my car is to enforce the seatbelt rule. I don't allow anyone in my car without them.

crosstownk

I agree - it's crazy stuff. I've even seen a parent in the front passenge seat with an infant in her hands holding the little one up, gooing and gaaing at him while the car is driving at 80km/h !! I've also seen primary school children hanging out of the rear windows and shouting to their friends in the car behind/ in front with mammy driving along happily.

It's one of those things I just don't understand, tbh.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I have come across parents who refused to let their children go on school tours if the bus had no seatbelts but who then drive their kids to school without seat belts and in the front seat.

kmick

As Einstein said 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity'. Make sure you bucle up your own kids. Let the idiots whose kids roam free repent at their leisure.

kelle

I work in a hospital. A few years ago, we had a tragedy where a young boy was thrown out through the front windscreen after the car he was being driven in was rear-ended. His injuries were horrific, to say the least, and he died later.

According to the Gardai, he was wearing a seat belt but no booster seat. His younger sisters were in proper child seats and were uninjured.

I won't allow my children to travel unrestrained - sometimes I've had to pull in and refuse to drive until they're belted in. I could just drive along and say nothing for the sake of peace, but I just think of that little boy and the regret his poor parents must feel every day for the rest of their lives.

During the school run, I see lots of parents allow their children to travel unrestrained - I've told a few about that little boy but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Rovi

kmick wrote:

As Einstein said 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity'. Make sure you bucle up your own kids. Let the idiots whose kids roam free repent at their leisure.

OT:
The full quote goes: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Tabnabs

Sorry for the thread drift, but I always wondered about the Volvo (and maybe Merc?) estates that had kids strapped into the boot?! Surely if the car is rear ended at speed then there really isn't sufficient protection (two instantly crippled kids)? Side on there's even less fair enough, but imagine sitting there and watching some loon charging up behind you! :eek:

Gwynston

I'm sure a lot of it is down to people's ignorance and reluctance to change. After all, it look many years for people to accept the original front seat belt laws, and laws for the rear came in even later. And of course, there is now the new booster seat laws which will take time for people to adopt.

But having learned first-hand all the risks you try to protect kids from, I don't understand the lack of common sense. How can a parent spend so much money and effort buying baby seats, safe buggies, and the plethora of other safety equipment that we throw down the money pit at the baby shops, only for the moment the kids are big enough to get out of the baby seat, to leave them be in the back of the car without any regard for their safety whatsoever...!

daveg

I file this argument under "you need a dog licence to own a dog but any asshole can have a child".

Gwynston

Sorry for the double post, and risking drifting more off topic...

Dyflin wrote:

Sorry for the thread drift, but I always wondered about the Volvo (and maybe Merc?) estates that had kids strapped into the boot?! Surely if the car is rear ended at speed then there really isn't sufficient protection :eek:

Indeed, but aslo consider the much more typical modern MPV, or anything with a third row of seats. There is vertually zero crash protection behind those back seats, which are almost exclusively for the use of children! :eek:

I believe protection is improving as the MPV sector booms, but certainly in anything from more than a couple of years ago, the 3rd row of seats would be a very hazardous place to be in the event of a rear collision, whether you're facing backwards or not.... :eek:

Mitch Connor

when i was a kid, seatbelts were an optional thing to 'wear', unles we were in the front seat. there was not campaingn to make it otherwise. My little brothers and sisters are all properly belted p and secured now, and they all know thats the way it is.

One thing i have noticed over the years though, is that i have found belting up is something i now do automatically, and if for any reason i do not put a belt on, it just feel weird - like i'm too free in the seat.

Pherekydes

Gwynston wrote:

Indeed, but aslo consider the much more typical modern MPV, or anything with a third row of seats. There is vertually zero crash protection behind those back seats, which are almost exclusively for the use of children! :eek:

Don't underestimate the construction of modern cars, MPVs in particular. My Hyundai Trajet was rear-ended and the integrity of the cabin, including the rear row, remained unaffected.

Regarding the original post, I have mine belt up before moving off, but they have been known to un-belt while driving. Heads and shoulders out windows is a no-no.

Gwynston

Tauren wrote:

when i was a kid, seatbelts were an optional thing to 'wear', unles we were in the front seat. there was not campaingn to make it otherwise. My little brothers and sisters are all properly belted p and secured now, and they all know thats the way it is.

Yes, for sure things have changed, and perhaps I was influenced from a young age by my father who was ahead of the game. When he bought a new car back in the mid-80s he paid to have rear belts fitted as an optional extra! And on my mum's runabout, he got aftermarket rear belts fitted by a garage.

I will never forget one day he collected me and a mate after football and as I put on my belt, my mate said, "What are you doing that for - don't you trust your dad's driving?". My dad duly stopped the car, and his stare metaphorically grabbed my friend by the scruff of the neck, as he growled, "My driving ability has got absolutely nothing to do with the next idiot who comes round the corner on the wrong side of the road and hits us head on, so put on your bloody belt!" As a kid, it was always very scary getting told off by someone else's dad! :eek:

Tauren wrote:

One thing i have noticed over the years though, is that i have found belting up is something i now do automatically, and if for any reason i do not put a belt on, it just feel weird - like i'm too free in the seat.

I concur entirely - I feel very vulnerable if I drive off unrestrained!

G Luxel

I dont like driving behind buses, in particularly school tours during the latter part of term. Teenagers (usually the In Crowd) in the back seat of the bus permanently looking out the back window, making faces, waving and sometimes exposing themselves:rolleyes: and not conforming to standards such as sitting down and being quiet, not to mention no seat belts in sight.
Well this thread probably applies to older buses and not the new ones with the large glassfree panels at the rear

Esel

G Luxel wrote:

...sometimes exposing themselves:rolleyes:

They should be belted for that!

SouperComputer

Why oh why would a parent leave a child unrestrained?

Ill give you some excuses, all of which are BS IMO:

1) "sure we're only going round the corner"
2) "Im a careful/safe/attentive driver, we'l be grand"
3) "The kids don't like wearing their seatbelts"
4) "I dont have time to put the seatbelts on"

Feel enraged? Think of it as darwinism in action!

dermot_sheehan

You get a fine and 2 penalty points for permiting any passengers under 17 to be unbelted. It's a bit hard for the guards to enforce though.

Gwynston

gabhain7 wrote:

You get a fine and 2 penalty points for permiting any passengers under 17 to be unbelted. It's a bit hard for the guards to enforce though.

Why is it hard to enforce? It certainly shouldn't be hard to catch them in the act. Just go sit in any Supermarket car park and I reckon half the cars you see driving away with kids in them will will not have them belted up.

I saw one ignorant mother a couple of weeks ago with two kids about 6 and 8, giving one of them a right telling off for not staying close to her while walking across the car park - the kid almost ran in front of a car. Only then for them all to get into their shiny 06 BMW 5-series and she drives off (after struggling to reverse the tank out of the space) with the kids happily jumping around on the back seat... :rolleyes:

Stupid rich bitch.... :mad:

phill106

Many of the new cars have audible seatbelt reminders that beep very annoyingly if there is someone sitting in either front seat without a belt on. Not in the back though. Add it to the back, or even better, make it so car wont start if people are on seats and not buckled.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

phill106 wrote:

Many of the new cars have audible seatbelt reminders that beep very annoyingly if there is someone sitting in either front seat without a belt on. Not in the back though. Add it to the back, or even better, make it so car wont start if people are on seats and not buckled.

Twice I have come across people who actually buckle the seat belt to stop the alarm but they sit on the belt rather than have it round them. Thick or what???

Mitch Connor

why would you even bother - the effort it would take to buckle the seatbelt before getting in, then positioning it, and yourself comfortably on it would be far higher then just putting it on!

peasant

another issue people seem to forget ...

an unbuckled passenger (child or otherwise) in the back could quite easily kill the people in the front seats on his way out through the front windscreen.

The same goes for unrestrained dogs on the backseat or in the hatchback/estate boot and / or unsecured heavy items of luggage.

Altreab

Tauren wrote:

why would you even bother - the effort it would take to buckle the seatbelt before getting in, then positioning it, and yourself comfortably on it would be far higher then just putting it on!

Because they are the sort of people that would say .." i dont like the seatbelt ...it makes me feel tied in"
Personally i feel very uncomfortable if im NOT "tied in" and as someone who has had the experience of a car crash i can say i would NEVER drive without my belt on or allow any passenger of any age sit without their seltbelts...as i said to one complaining back seat passenger ..."..Im not going to be your airbag in a crash ...wear the belt or walk"

Gwynston

Good points being made about the danger unrestrained passengers pose to the rest of us. Like that ad showing those unbelted young adults flying about in slow mo with heads banging off each other :eek: Very graphic - I hope the message got through.... (think it might have been a Norn Iron ad showing on UTV?)

A few years ago when we lived in England there was a similar campaign. It depicted a mother collecting her teenage son, who gets into the back seat without putting on a belt. Down the road, a van pulls out right in front and they can't avoid crashing into it! The lad is shown flying in slow mo into the back of mum's head, and bouncing back into his seat covered in blood. The voiceover calmly said, "After killing his mother, Billy sat back down..." while the daughter in the other front seat is freaking out at the site of her dead mum. The chilling message was that Billy wasn't badly hurt, but mum who was safely buckled up, survived the vehicle impact, but not her son's....

It certainly made my wife take notice. When we moved over here and members of her family routinely got into the back of her car without belting up, she would refuse to drive off until they did so. On more than one occasion, someone got rather miffed to be told how to look after their own safety, until she recalled that ad and plainly told them that she wasn't going to drive them anywhere so long as there was a chance they would kill her through not wearing their belt in the back....

unkel

Couldn't agree more, Gwynston. I found both those ads very effective. In the first one the paramedic says something like that the guy without the seat belt did all the damage

Not like that irritating ad where this lad drinks one pint after his football game, closes his eyes while driving :rolleyes: and crashes...

BnA

I agree with all that has been said above.

Going slightly off Topic here....

Did anyone ever notice the amount of mothers in cars packed with kids in the morning on a school run where the mother \ driver is smoking away like a trooper. Often without even a window open if it is a cold morning. At the very least, could they not wait 10 bloody minutes untill they have their kids out of the car before they fill it with smoke.

testicle

kelle wrote:

a young boy was thrown out through the front windscreen after the car he was being driven in was rear-ended.

There's something not right with that statement. It appears to disagree with the laws of physics.