Child car seat law ignored

I'm only 5ft 2, some 12 year olds are taller than me, so should I be driving around with a booster seat?

Clearly this differs by country, but The UK Gov states clearly...

"Never carry a baby or child in your lap" - Never carry a baby or child in your lap and do not allow
any of your passengers to do so. Babies and children MUST travel in a child restraint. An unrestrained child will be in serious danger if the vehicle stops suddenly or is in a crash.
"Never use a seat belt for more than one person" - Never use a seat belt for more than one person. Do not travel with a baby or child in your lap sharing the belt. You and the child are likely to be badly hurt if the car stops suddenly or is in a crash. An active frontal airbag is an added danger if you are sitting with a baby or child on your lap in the front passenger seat.

http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/campaigns/childcarseats/pdf/law-leaflet.pdf There may be exceptions but what parent in their right mind would put their children's life in danger?

Manufacturers do not appear to make booster seats that fit the middle back seat. I have 3 small children and can not afford an mpv. The majority of cars middle back seat is narrow. The law says I must have a child seat for all my children. However I have hunted high and low to no avail. has anyone overcome this problem?

help please we cannot seem to find a car seat that fits a zafira???
thanks martyn

Dadof3 - sorry if I upset you, but I just see facts as being, well, facts. Fact is, it IS dangerous to allow children to travel in a car without a child seat. And the middle seat belt in the back IS extremely dangerous and virtually useless as a life saver unless used with a special child seat designed for use with the middle belt - it is just like a hard pad of foam and from memory has two sort of handle things at the side through which the lap belt fits. The lap belts is NOT safe for children at all unless used with one of these special pad thingies. Even for adults the lap belt is very unsafe because in an accident it will rip into your guts, but is better than nothing. For young children it is lethal unless used with a lap belt seat as described above.

I am shocked and appalled by the attitude of DevonGirl and Nikki. So only the smug and wealthy should be allowed to have 3 children? You are the ones with the old-fashioned attitudes - eugenics is an idea that had its day but it was pretty much knocked on the head in the sickening smell of burning flesh in a bunker in Berlin in 1944. How fortunate I am to live in a State where I was not castrated after having two children on the basis that my back seat doesn't have three 3-point restraints.

Oh, and one little point of law here: it is perfectly legal to carry a child with a lap belt in the middle seat if the other 2 rear seats are occupied with child seats. It is clearly not as safe as using a booster seat, but no, Nikki, lapbelts are not virtually useless. They would not be fitted otherwise. FYI the child I "choose" to sit in that position is my eldest, heaviest child, in accordance with government guidelines, because she is the one who would best be protected in that position in the event of a crash, and not because I'd quite like her dead, Nikki.

The fact is that we deal with risks every minute we are alive. My children and I could all be killed in our car, seatbelts or no seatbelts. We could be killed crossing the road, on a train, falling downstairs. Like any other parent, I do my best to avoid or mitigate those risks with the means that I have at my disposal. In fact, I stumbled into this forum looking for car seats that can be fitted using a lap belt. However, I am not going to say that family life must halt until I've saved enough to buy a Zafira or found a seat that fits. Everyone on this forum takes the same approach, or none of you would leave your homes, and Nikki certainly wouldn't go around throwing herself off horses. So let's have less of this holier-than-thou attitude please.

I am shocked and appalled by the attitude of DevonGirl and Nikki. So only the smug and wealthy should be allowed to have 3 children? You are the ones with the old-fashioned attitudes - eugenics is an idea that had its day but it was pretty much knocked on the head in the sickening smell of burning flesh in a bunker in Berlin in 1944. How fortunate I am to live in a State where I was not castrated after having two children on the basis that my back seat doesn't have three 3-point restraints.

Oh, and one little point of law here: it is perfectly legal to carry a child with a lap belt in the middle seat if the other 2 rear seats are occupied with child seats. It is clearly not as safe as using a booster seat, but no, Nikki, lapbelts are not virtually useless. They would not be fitted otherwise. FYI the child I "choose" to sit in that position is my eldest, heaviest child, in accordance with government guidelines, because she is the one who would best be protected in that position in the event of a crash, and not because I'd quite like her dead, Nikki.

The fact is that we deal with risks every minute we are alive. My children and I could all be killed in our car, seatbelts or no seatbelts. We could be killed crossing the road, on a train, falling downstairs. Like any other parent, I do my best to avoid or mitigate those risks with the means that I have at my disposal. In fact, I stumbled into this forum looking for car seats that can be fitted using a lap belt. However, I am not going to say that family life must halt until I've saved enough to buy a Zafira or found a seat that fits. Everyone on this forum takes the same approach, or none of you would leave your homes, and Nikki certainly wouldn't go around throwing herself off horses. So let's have less of this holier-than-thou attitude please.

noy roy: I hate the nanny state as much as the next person, but I'm sorry, you are talking with blinkers on. Just because YOU were lucky enough to survive when you were young in a couple of incidents, does NOT mean that your children may be so lucky. I don't care how much teasing your 12 year old gets from his/her mates, or mine for that matter, better that than your child be a quadraplegic or worse. How would you ever live with yourself if your beautiful son/daughter were permanently disfigured or crippled or dead just because you didn't want them to lose their street cred with their mates? YOU are the parent, YOU should be responsible and rise above such emotional pressure.

My daughter used to tell me that I looked a complete ****head in my new Charles Owen Showjumper riding hat. I replied to her "****head I may look, but better to be a live ****head than a dead one! How those words proved to be true. That hat saved my life and my personal opinion is that if I had survived the accident I had, I would have been paralysed had I not been wearing that hat.

You do not need to measure your child every week and most children with respect for themselves and their parents will gladly wear a seat belt and use a booster seat,stop reading your street cred into your childs NOY ROY.Explain to your other children and their friends why you killed the unrestrained child.
Freddie I think that you will find occasional use you do not need a booster seat but for the sake of £15 or so.................Get the drift.

My 9 year old nephew had his first golf lesson last night. His grandad dropped him off there but was unable to wait so he asked me to collect him on my way home. I did so but realised that as I do not have children, and rarely need to take children anywhere, I do not have a child car seat. I made him sit in the back with a seatbelt on.
What else could I do? This law means I now have to go and buy a child booster seat 'just in case' I need to pick him up again. Bloody ridiculous!
Clearly somebody somewhere is making an awful lot of money!!!!

Im sorry but the law here is stupid. It states any child under a certain hight and under the age of 12 should be in a child seat. So we are supposed to measure our kids every week to see if they fit the requirements?

Also have you ever tried getting a 12 yr old into a child seat? It hard enough to get them to wear a seatbelt. Its embarassing and degrading for a 12 yr old to have to be in one. They will probably get bullied if seen by school friends. When I was young we didnt have this law and I was in a couple of small accidents and came out fine.

This is just another example of the nanny socialist government legislating where it is not needed. Stop falling for their propaganda and make your own decisions on your childrens safety.

Parents,grandparents flouting the seatbelt rule,they are either ignorant or plain stupid.The law was made to protect the little innocent ones who can't make a calculated decision.
3 childseats in a car may not work so change the car but not for one with suicide seats facing rearwards in the crumple zone.
Children bouncing around in a car has become annoying, but so has DOGS bouncing around on the drivers lap knocking the mobile out of the drivers hand and burning its snout on the drivers fag.