Child Booster Seats

[Hazell B]

In a Yorkshire local paper article last week North Yorkshire Police stated that they will not be enforcing the child booster seat laws at all. This morning it's been reported on teletext that two other forces are following suit.

So, how would you rate this law now? Forces are unable to legally and safely take children out of cars and measure them at the roadside, but allowing them to drive on to a station would be making them break the law :confused:

What's the point in the law? Which moron thought it out I wonder? How many other laws will be brought in equally impossible to police? We already have thousands of drivers technically uninsured because they have bullbars or modifications and that isn't policed at all either.

Or will they just enforce the laws if there's an accident?

[jim mcglinchey]

Nice. I spent about £15 on a lump of polystyrene with a cheap fabric cover that probably cost about 25p to manufacture, and you re saying that it wasn't necessary!

I think the owners of Halfords probably reired to the Bahamas on the back of that little deal.

[CarlMetro]

What's the point in the law?

The point is quite simple. Research into crashes carried out by RoSPA has shown that a child under 4'6'' using a normal seat belt in a car is at great risk to injury during a collision, due to the seat belt not being in the correct position to restrain them. However the law only applies to children under the age of 13, yet there are children and adults who do not come up to the required height limit :crazy:

Still you got to love the police when they, as law enforcers rather than the politicians as law makers, decide which laws they will enforce :rolleyes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6355537.stm

[Hazell B]

Still you got to love the police when they, as law enforcers rather than the politicians as law makers, decide which laws they will enforce :rolleyes:



Thanks for the link Carl :up:

I know why the law exists, but was meaning why does it exist in a format that's almost impossible to police when I asked.

Imagine you're stopped (anyone, not just Carl) for having a brake light out or something and the officer asked you to get your child out of the vehicle on the roadside on a dark evening so he could measure him. Now imagine the slight chance that police officer is some kiddy fiddler in a costume, or your child is run over after slipping on the grass verge under some wagon's wheels, or that you pet dog also jumps out of the car into oncoming traffic .... and the list goes on. Police just are not willing to take the chance when they can just as easily tell the parent to sort out the seat ASAP and they'll be logging the registration (even if that bit's not true) for future stops.

If a parent is stupid enough to drive their child about in an unsafe manner, I'm happy to see them fined heavily. However, two screaming kids running about on the side of a B road after dark, chasing their pet dog, isn't something I want to drive around a corner and see in front of me :eek:

I polaroid of the child for identification and a slip to visit a local police station within six days to show the new seat is surely a better way? Cheap to manage, too.

[Daniel]

Yes Hazell but you're using your head a little too much there. If there's one thing I've noticed about this country is that people seem to go out of their way to **** things up if they're in power :mark:

[Mark]

This government is fantastic at making up yet more laws, but they have no clue how to enforce them. And the solution if laws aren't being enforced? Make more laws :s

[Daniel]

This whole country should be given a lesson in customer service. We were patted down going into the natural history museum in London and when we got to the exhibit we wanted to get into we were told that our coats presented "A security risk" :crazy: Now apparently there were signs on the way in but it would have been nice for the security people to say those with coats go over there. We weren't the only ones who didn't see it. Another woman was told that her small handbag also presented a security risk. Did they offer to keep it behind the counter for her? No? Did they let her spill her belongings out onto the counter so they could see there was nothing untoward? No! They did their level best to piss her off as best they could :(

Do they have any brains? No!

I don't mind British people and in fact coming from Australia there's no real culture shock at all but there seem to be a lot of people here who are more concerned with being blown up or not offending minorities than actually living an easy life where everything just works and everything just makes sense.

[CarlMetro]

This whole country should be given a lesson in customer service. We were patted down going into the natural history museum in London and when we got to the exhibit we wanted to get into we were told that our coats presented "A security risk" :crazy: Now apparently there were signs on the way in but it would have been nice for the security people to say those with coats go over there. We weren't the only ones who didn't see it. Another woman was told that her small handbag also presented a security risk. Did they offer to keep it behind the counter for her? No? Did they let her spill her belongings out onto the counter so they could see there was nothing untoward? No! They did their level best to piss her off as best they could :(

Do they have any brains? No!

I don't mind British people and in fact coming from Australia there's no real culture shock at all but there seem to be a lot of people here who are more concerned with being blown up or not offending minorities than actually living an easy life where everything just works and everything just makes sense.

What the hell does any of that have to do with child booster seats or the police enforcing, or not as in this case, a law? :confused:

[Daniel]

It comes back to the fact that they makes rules which may be reasonable but the implementation of these rules/laws is just shockingly bad.

[BDunnell]

I think it has more to do with the US-style security paranoia that has found its way to the UK for no reason than the issue of laws being passed that are hard to enforce.

[slinkster]

I guess the point has still been made that these children will effectively be safer with these seats, so it's gone some way to saving a few lives I hope. If nothing else it's brought attention to the matter.

However, it has rendered the legal stance on it a bit useless... I'm sure this isn't the first nor the last time the police will be unable to enforce such ideas and laws. I tend not to even be suprised by hearing things like this anymore.

[Hazell B]

I However, it has rendered the legal stance on it a bit useless... I'm sure this isn't the first nor the last time the police will be unable to enforce such ideas and laws. I tend not to even be suprised by hearing things like this anymore.

Same here, and it saddens me.

Thing is, it appears so easy to just reword the wretched muck-ups and make them easy to enforce in many cases. Why can't the laws simply be made workable in the first place? :crazy:

After all, we buy a TV in any store and the TV Licence people know about it. Why not the same with bullbars and child seats? It would stop the second hand market in stolen seats to some extent, too. Council officers will be allowed to take our photo if we smoke in public places, why not the police if we drive without child seats too? It's unfair to allow one and not the other.

I've often wondered exactly what percentage of cars on the road are illegal at any time, what with tyres, child seats, MOT and so on. Stop and check wouldn't be a problem for me, but they can't or won't do it in my experience. Better way to make fine money than speed cameras and helping in all aspects of safety too.

[fandango]

Better way to make fine money than speed cameras and helping in all aspects of safety too.

"I paid good money for that" can now be replaced with "I paid fine money for that" :)

Anyway, I can see Daniel's point about some hi-vis clad jobsworth's deliberate lack of common sense and consideration for others in the quest for a job well done. The convoluted and impractical laws dreamed up by politicians usually only serve to fuel these idiots' zeal rather than helping people in general.

As for child seats, I'm amazed people need laws. I can't put it any simpler than that.