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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is out with plans to repeatedly subject a 10-year-old to a slew of collision experiments. The 10-year-old in question, of course, is a crash-test dummy -- in this case, one made to represent young passenger and part of a whole family of new dummies designed to test crash effects on toddlers, pre-teens and teenagers.
The New York Times notes that the new program is in response to a greater number of boosters and safety seats designed for older and larger children.The NHTSA now tests restraints for children up to 65 lbs., and the government is also expanding federal child safety seat standards to include devices made for kids weighing up to 80 pounds.
Do larger children really need safety harnesses?
I feel your pain in a way.. I had a huge 17 lb black tom cat,( and no he wasn't overweight he was so long his nose touched one arm of the couch and his tail the other,) anyway, he loved car rides and if a window was left down he was in the car. Half the time you wouldn't know he was in the car until he jumped up into the back window. People have had to bring him back after he snuck in their cars and took off with him.
Someone want to tell me why it is our government keeps expanding the (in my opinion) already obtrusive and mentally inefficient CAR SEAT LAWS.
Why is it my child has to be strapped into my truck in a manner befitting a NASA space shuttle take off device, yet our government owned School busses dont have any seat belts or car seats.
Why is it my child can ride in a limousine and be playing his XBOX and not be in a seat belt or car seat.
Why is it my child can sit in a tin can winnebago and be taking a pee on a mobile port a potty without a seat belt or a car seat.
Why is it my child can be riding along in my 1923 coupe with no current air bags, ABS system, and no roof without a seat belt or a child seat just because it wasnt factory equipped with seat belts at the time it was built.
And why is it the same morons who make all these annoying laws are alive today after spending the majority of their youth riding in the bed of dads pickup truck with 4 of their buddies on the way to the ice cream parlor.
I'll tell you why ....... cause we dont really need all this overbearing safety bullcrap.
The only reason these laws are made in the first place is to conform to some Insurance Lobbyyist's personal agenda, or some obsessed group of moms from some mentally retarded PTA group decided during an election year to try to tell the rest of the world how to raise their child.
IF my child is safe in a school bus, limousine or tin can winnebago without being shackled to the car in a manner befitting a space launch , then im sure hes fine in my truck without a frickin car seat.
The majority of the crashes are probably caused by mom or dad constantly turning around and dealing with their poor harnessed in kid while he/she is fussing and twisting and escaping the damn seat in the first place.
When I was six years old, I could sit in the front seat of any car (in the 1980's) and the only issue I had was the shoulder strap being on my neck instead of my shoulder. I just pulled the strap behind my arm and rode with the belt strap only! Just as safe as having only the belt strap in the back seat like many cars still do today!
When I was four years old, some of my relatives wanted to put me into a 'car seat' for a trip to my great-grandmother's place. I was too big to fit into ANY car-seat that was made back then (1985) and ended up sleeping through most of the trip with a standard lap belt!
Also, I was allowed in an exit seat in an airplane when I was 14 years old. And I was probably more capable of doing whatever might have been necessary than the adult man in the aisle seat next to my mother (who was sitting next to me!)
These 'Rules' and 'Laws' need to reflect reality. A 'child' (and I use the term loosely!) between 60 and 80 lbs. will be AT SOMEONE'S THROAT if they are called a "little kid" or are forced to do anything that they believe is only for "little kids" INCLUDING being in ANY sort of 'special seat' in the car. That's how I was, and I was otherwise a 'model child.' I never had any tantrums unless I thought something was wrong. and even now at 30 years old, I remember most things from when I was FOUR!
So, NO! Larger kids DO NOT need special saftey equipment! And I would say that smaller kids (under about 60-65 lbs. and 4 years or older) should ONLY be required to ride in the back-seat of a car, nothing else UNLESS they are severly undersize for their age.
They won't be happy until young "adults" are sitting in booster seats with harnesses !!!
good luck getting a kid out of a smashed up car by being completely "strapped" into it
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