RANT: Get a fucking carseat for the kid, and use it, dammit!

[flvegan]

Okay, so I'm driving from Tampa to Lakeland today, using good ole I4 (one of the deadliest stretches of pavement on Mother Earth). I'm passing this big SUV (not that it matters) and I see the back driver-side window rolled down. Out peeks this cute little kid. Couldn't be more than 3 or 4 years old. I think to myself, wow, that child should really be in a car seat. Maybe he/she is in one, but I can't see it (said vehicle towering over mine). Nah. Nope. No dice. This little kid is sitting in the lap of an adult.

I'm absolutely enraged. Here we are, doing 70 mph, and this youngster has NO protection. Shit, my dog, my big Dane has a harness and an anchor in my car. I hit something, he's getting a good jerk, but he's not through my windshield. And he's my FRIGGIN' DOG!

In the past few months, too many folks have died around here "thrown from the vehicle" for not wearing belts/being in carseats.

I don't give a good gosh damn about WHY the kid isn't in a carseat. Don't even try the "no room" bs with me. You're driving a friggin Denali with seating for, like, 10 people. Take two damn cars if you have to.

Sorry, all. I had to rant, and this was the best place.

[auntAgonist]

1. I'm with you on this!

I saw a dog jump out of a car window once on the freeway, it was horrible. The driver was hysterical, upset and totally out of control at what had happened. No one hit the poor dog thank goodness, but it was dead, probably died on impact.
My first thought was my god that could have been a child! I see SO many youngsters jumping around in back seats. I saw a woman driving AND holding a 2 or so years old child in her lap! Where are the cops at times like this? ? ?

Don't people KNOW better? really?

aA
:hi:

[Kajsa]

2. I agree 110%.

There is no excuse for not having a child's car seat.

Some charities give them away to needy families.
I doubt if Mrs. Denali falls into that category.

I thought it was an automatic ticket if the HP caught them without one.

Here in CA, there are hefty fines to pay for this.

[LeftyMom]

5. Sadly, the fine isn't hefty

It's $50 and waived if you show evidence of having purchased a seat. :(

[xmas74]

57. That's it?

MO it's $200 for not having them strapped in. The law applies to any child under 40 pounds and they are going through w/ the booster law, which will go to 80 pounds.

Owning one doesn't matter. It's all about if it's in use or not.

[LeftyMom]

62. Yep and the booster law here only goes to 6 years old or 60 lbs,

whichever comes first.

[xmas74]

70. now that sucks.

MO is usually behind everyone else.

[LeftyMom]

71. It's rediculous.

LeftyKid is five and a few months, and though he's huge for his age he'll need a seat for several more years before he'll fit in a seatbelt properly or have the maturity to use one. It's hard to imagine the typical six year old, who is his size or a bit smaller, sitting in a seatbelt with the lap belt way up on thier abdomen and the shoulder belt under thier chin or behind thier back. It's not safe or comfortable, but people think that the law would require seats longer if they were needed so we see six year olds with no boosters, up front with the air bag, etc all the time.

[flvegan]

10. Here, you can go to a police station and get one for free.

No questions asked. It's just ill-parenting and "don't want to do it-edness." Especially when one is cruising in a $40,000 suv (and btw, this one had at least $2k in rims...but no car seat. Kick-ass priorities, playa.

[LeftyMom]

3. Definitely

If nothing else a decent belt positioning booster can be bought for $20 or so for a low back or $30-$40 for a basic high back model. Certainly nobody driving a $30K SUV has any excuse not to provide thier child with one.

The sad thing- it's only legally required to use a car seat until age three in Florida (I looked it up) although the kid does have to be in some sort of seat belt until five so they were still breaking that law. I don't know if either one is a primary enforcement offense that somebody can be pulled over for without another violation. Hell, until recently they could have let that kid bounce around in the back of a pickup perfectly legally. Meanwhile the safety reccomendation is to keep a kid in a seat or booster until they're 4'9". Good to know they take child safety seriously down there. :grr:

[GOPisEvil]

6. Even Texas has billboards about the 4'9" rule.

TEXAS for crying out loud! :mad:

As for the woman in particular, go right head and let your kid go around unrestrained. I'm sure you can make another one just like him...

[SeattleGirl]

4. I agree with you, flvegan

WTF is the matter with people who don't put their kids in car seats??? Do they think "it" won't happen to them? That they won't get in an accident, or have to come to a sudden stop to avoid hitting something? That their kid won't get hurt? They probably went to the Britany Spears School of Parenting.

[flvegan]

12. What "parent" buckles up but then

doesn't tend to the kiddo in the back? That's my biggest WTF awakening, ever.

I buckle up, but the kid in the back will be okay. Oh, don't mind me balling my eyes out on the news when I live through some tragic crash, but the 3 year old doesn't. Oh, and sorry poor, pathetic person involved in the crash. Sorry that my poor judgment has a 3 year old's death on your mind forever.

[Haole Girl]

7. Proving once again

they don't give you an intelligence test to be a parent!

[LaraMN]

8. My oldest was in a lap booster until he was 7 + 1/2.

There are so many awful things that can happen that you cannot prevent; I'll be damned if I'm not going to take the precautions that I realistically can to avert an unnecessary tragedy. That just burns me.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

9. My grandson yells like a gut shot baboon if I forget to buckle him

in his car seat. A lot of the kid shows talk about car seats and encourage the kids to use them and to use their seatbelt, so it is kind of surprising that an older child doesn't teach the parent.

[Redstone]

17. NOBODY goes anywhere in my car without a seatbelt.

Kids OR adults.

Redstone

[Redstone]

11. I actually get out of my car at stoplights and scream at people

who don't put their kids in a carseat.

They should have their parental rights terminated the second time they do it.

Redstone

[flvegan]

13. You, sir have a permanent invite to come to Florida, and

we'll cruise around and find these folks, then follow them to where they're going.

This would make a kick-ass Dateline expose, or something.

[LeftyMom]

14. I want in on this

I'm perfectly willing to explain the laws of physics in very small words to these people. :grr:

[flvegan]

16. Okay, you, me and Redstone

(sounds like the beginning of a REALLY funny joke) will take these folks to task. Of course, it will be video/cellphone based at the start. And for goodness sakes, DON'T give Redstone the pool cue. I hear he's damn near deadly with it.

[LeftyMom]

19. I get to drive!

Too late, I called it. :evilgrin:

[flvegan]

21. Um...

I'm never the driver. Never.

[Redstone]

22. You can drive, no problem; that gives FLV and me both hands free

for the baseball bats.

Redstone

[flvegan]

25. Oh, no

He went there. Mine's a Louisville, Carl Yastrzemski model. Yaz=hero.

[Redstone]

26. Don't care about the model. Gotta be a Slugger, and 36 or 38 ounces,

that's all I require.

PS: I DESPISE the sound an aluminum bat makes hitting a baseball. TINK!

Redstone

[Redstone]

30. Actually, there's a calm, civilized way to do this:

LM gets them to pull over and stop. You calmly explain to the driver why it's wrong to not have a carseat.

And while you have the driver's attention, I'll be putting holes in the sidewalls of both their rear tires with an ice pick.

They'll have enough air to get off the highway and call a tow truck.

Redstone

[flvegan]

35. What, no banana in the tailpipe?

It seems to work wonders. Saw that in that Beverly Hills Cop thing...

[Redstone]

38. A potato works MUCH better.

Redstone

[Redstone]

15. Fuck no, not Florida; only somewhere civilized. Don't you guys have

that "it's OK to shoot someone if you think they're looking at you funny" law?

Redstone

[flvegan]

18. Well, sort of. It's about protecting oneself, and not hurting another...

something. Oh, hell...okay, sometimes folks here get shot. Better odds at winning the Lotto, though. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[nytemare]

36. Be careful in Florida with that, though.

Remember the new law that if someone feels threatened, they can shoot. Never mind that the kid is threatened by not being in a safety seat.

Crazy stuff.

[LeftyMom]

40. Maybe I should go up to the cars then

There's no way anybody could claim I look threatning. O8)

[Redstone]

43. Deal.

Redstone

[nytemare]

59. But, you are a lefty mom!

You could threaten Mr Gun Happy Righty with your very existence!

:D

[jpgray]

28. I also get out of my car screaming, but I bring a carseat along with me

I carry extras just for this purpose. I then proceed to break a window, enter the vehicle, install the seat, and forcibly strap the child in while fending off any parental intervention. Then I adjust my "I care about things! Really I do!!" cape and tunic, and drive off to awe-filled cries of "Who was that masked (and easily outraged) man?"

[Redstone]

29. Well, what a guy you are.

Redstone

[CTyankee]

73. I'd be afraid to do that!

Who knows what they might do to me?

Sadly, for some parents it's just not a big deal and I can't understand that. Do you think it is basically a matter of educating parents? Or is it the cost?

[Gormy Cuss]

20. At times like that I wish I had a stash of graphic photos to let them

know just what would happen in an accident.

I have to admit that when I see unrestrained kids in a beater I think maybe the parents don't own the car or a carseat and they have no choice, but a Denali? That's willful cluelessness.

[flvegan]

23. You know, that's exactly how I saw it.

If you don't have the cash, I'm not going to be ugly. However, if you're rolling on $40-50K of steel, have a heart and buckle the kid in, dammit. Check your priorities.

[LeftyMom]

24. Last year I saw a brand new (dealer plates on it) Escalade

with an overhead shield car seat in the back that was covered in duct tape. Good to know they could afford whatever the hell that hulking beast cost, but not the $40-$100 for a safe modern car seat that isn't falling apart.

[Midlodemocrat]

27. One of my biggest pet peeves. A few years ago, the local

hospitals had postage paid cards that you could send to folks you saw out driving without using a car seat properly. You copied down the license plate #, stated time/place/date and sent it to the hospital. The hospital forwarded it to the police who sent a friendly reminder letter about using car seats and if you couldn't afford one, where to get one.

Sounds a tad big brother-ish, but I am all for it if it saves lives.

[Redstone]

31. Yup, the kids can't make it happen, so someone has to.

Redstone

[Midlodemocrat]

32. Hey, off topic, (Sorry, flvegan)

I showed my copy of the cookbook to my sister in law to be and she loved it. Thought the pictures were amazing.

Good thing I bought extras!!

:hi:

[Redstone]

34. Why, thank you. Always good to hear that. It was truly a labor

of love for me.

Redstone

[flvegan]

37. Off-topic? I have no idea what that means.

Free speech for all!!!!!

[nytemare]

33. I'd like to give the people who figured out how to do I-4 in Orlando

during construction a bop to the head. I guess the folks that did the autobahns were to frigging busy. The lanes shift, there is one exit/entrance that gives about 20 feet of merge/exit space (and this is right by Universal Studios). They did a poor job stripping the old lane markers, so when it rains or the sun is at a bad angle, and the lanes shift, you can't tell where the heck you are supposed to be.

I know it is a difficult job, but I have no idea how there is not a fatal accident every day on the stretch between Kirkman Rd and the East West. It is ridiculous.

And, I QUITE agree with what you are saying. I was behind a brand new Mercedes once, and the idiots didn't have their kid in a seat. No excuse. If you can't afford them, there are programs to get them for free.

[Redstone]

42. They must have learned how to do highway construction from the

Connecticut DOT. I shit you not: EIGHT YEARS to replace a four-lane bridge less than a half-mile long. Eight years. A dead-level bridge, straight as an arrow. Eight years.

Redstone

[nytemare]

60. Holy crap.

When they finally finished, everyone must have been thinking, "what the hell happened?"

:)

[Random_Australian]

39. Good rant on a worthy subject. WTF were they thinking!

[flvegan]

41. All I pictured was this terrible accident

that's happened so many times here lately, where the car/truck/suv went awry, and the driver was okay, but having flipped 7 or 8 times, the passengers (many, little kids) were thrown from the vehicle, and died.

I, myself, could NEVER live with that.

[Gormy Cuss]

46. There's the opposite image too, something that's happened here recently

The adults chose not to belt themselves in and were killed, while the children in their car seats came away with a few scratches and bruises. At least those parents made the cautious choice for their kids and because of that they lived.

[flvegan]

47. But then, that choice...

What does it leave for those kids?

[Redstone]

49. Yes, indeed. The kids are orphans because of the parents' stupidity.

Better than being dead, but still not a great outcome.

Redstone

[flvegan]

50. And what of the survivors?

I mean, if it were I, and I were part (not responsible, legally...whatever that means) of the death of these kids or the parents...I'd have to live with that, only due to their lack of, well...responsibility. I couldn't deal with that. I'd be a total basket case knowing that I had a part in the death of someone, some children...

[Gormy Cuss]

51. Alive, and orphans.

It beats everyone dying, but that's about it.

[Redstone]

44. And this is significant, coming from someone who lives in a country

where driving distances are measured in beers, and the esky is never allowed to be empty.

(Not that I have a problem with that, seriously, as long as there are no kids in the car. Kinda like the idea, in fact. Used to be that way here, too. I remember when I moved from PA to Connecticut, it took a case of Rolling Rock each way, between me and my friend who had the truck.)

Redstone

[Redstone]

45. Regarding seat belts: Isn't it amazing how there's alway someone who knows

someone whose cousin had a brother-in-law who went to school with someone he worked with who once went swimming with someone who had an uncle who had a friend who talked in a bar with someone who had an accident, and only survived it because the car caught on fire and he was able to get out ONLY because he wasn't wearing his seat belt?

I bet you've heard that one, too.

Redstone

[flvegan]

48. I hear you, and that's coming from someone that shouldn't be alive

today, if not for that seatbelt.

Twice.

[Redstone]

53. And you're not the only one. I was lucky; I started racing in SCCA E- and

F- class sprint races when I was young (you could lie about your age back then before photo licenses) and learned the value of a seat belt early.

In fact, if I had a choice, I'd still rather have the old "hard" belts that didn't have a retracting mechanism. They were good for keeping you from sliding around during hard cornering.

Redstone

[LostinVA]

61. Oh yeah -- I've heard that one, and read it here on DU

"Nanny State" my foot...

[Misunderestimator]

64. My nephew and his wife had a rollover accident a few weeks ago...

rolled over seven or eight times, and by the looks of the vehicle, it would seem that no one could have survived. Yet, they both did... thanks to the seatbelts they were wearing. And they escaped with on minor injuries. Without belts, they would both be dead, I'm sure.

[progmom]

65. I only know one

...and he was the rare case where he actually was lucky to have been thrown clear of his car. He's absolutely terrified of wearing a seatbelt now. But yeah - that's a one in a million case.

[AlCzervik]

52. i hate that, and how much you wanna bet he leaves that kid in the truck

when he runs into the store?

[Redstone]

54. I'm not taking that bet. I live in Connecticut, where about once a month

they arrest someone for leaving their kids in the car for HOURS while they go gamble in one of the two casinos.

Redstone

[NMMNG]

55. Idiots

Probably working from Britney Spears logic: "Mah daddy used tah do it with me when ah was a kid so its ok for me tah do it". :eyes:

[huskerlaw]

56. Britney Spears was in Florida today?

Sorry, I had to do it.

You're right though, of course. People like that should be thrown through the damn windshield for being so fucking stupid.

[Seabiscuit]

58. Doesn't Florida have carseat laws?

I would have taken down the SUV's license plate, and reported them to the proper authorities.

Here in CA, carseats/booster seats are mandatory for children up to a certain age (well over 3-4 y/o).

[hedgehog]

63. People aren't thrown from cars, they're thrown THROUGH cars!

People have this image of the door popping open and a gentle roll away from the machine. The truth is that people go through the glass. Take a look at your car windows some time and imagine getting out with the window rolled down. Now imagine doing it in 5 seconds or less after breaking the glass with your face.

[ileus]

66. I see is all the time here in Hickville WV/VA that I live in.

My wife and I always start on these people but it doesn't matter, most don't bathe the kids much less understand how to use a car seat properly. I see it all the time with infants, I suppose they start crying and someone decides it easier to hold the child than listen to it cry. Our daughter cried every time she was put into a car seat for her first 4 months...we just put up with it.

[tigereye]

67. yeah I always get upset when I see kids that aren't in one

I saw a kid standing up in the back of a car once. I wanted to yell at the driver, "get a clue!"


my dad made us wear seatbelts (or installed them), even in the pre-seatbelt and pre-carseat era.

[allalone]

68. back in the olden days

when cars had no seat belts, we used to tell our kids that the car wouldn't run if they didn't have their backs pressed against the seat. Wouldn't really have helped if in a crash, but at least they were under control and seated.

[1monster]

69. That's when you use your cell phone to report the car driving down

the road. I know that the fine for not having a child in a car seat used to be $150, but has since gone up...

If I'm babysitting for a small child, I ask for a car seat just in case there is some reason that I HAVE to take the child somewhere.

And everybody, adults and children, riding in my car wears a seat belt. I don't start the car until the seat belts are fastened.

[havocmom]

72. #1 reason my bro stopped being a paramedic - kids through windshields

He had to look at one too many. I understand it took a few big CHP officers to keep him from administering a lesson on the idiot adults (drunk) responsible for the mess.

[yellowdogintexas]

74. saw a Hummer the other day with kid in FRONT SEAT,

standing, with arms up on the dashboard and head about 3 inches from the windshield..

I just wanted to SCREAM at that driver...