traveling with child in car without car seat

biz_it · Post by **biz_it** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:32 pm

Hi,

If I need to give left to a friend and my wife puts the child in lap to adjust the friend in the car, how problamatic can that be if police stops us (will they stop us for this?). I know its unsafe but only asking from police perspective or if someone had probelms with this before?

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Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 7:01 pm

Child that is three years or older can be attached to plain seatbelts on temporary basis.
I don't think you should put the child to a lap even in that case [seat belt surrounding you both], and if the chip is two or younger it is illegal in any case without a proper seat.

rinso · Post by **rinso** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 7:14 am

When a police spots you with a child on your lap, they will probably stop you and investigate.

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:51 am

are you thinking of doing this in the front seat or the back of the car? have you ever been in a car collision? in a collision the kid will probably die, killed either by the weight of the person "holding" the kid or being thrown through the windscreen/out the side windows. The surviving adult who was doing the "holding" can then spend the rest of their life with this on their conscience.
My recommendation is to have a look on youtube at some clips of car accidents and seeing people thrown out of cars who aren't wearing seat belts and then think about what to do.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 6:56 pm

You know, one takes risks kids with every day, even if one would not like to think it too much always. Having a fatal accident during one individual car trip in Finland isn't even at the high end of things.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 9:49 pm

tummansininen wrote:Same for you in the car, so do you leave your seatbelt off? Maybe drive 20 over the limit, since there's little risk you'll die... today?

They have always used seats and belts in this country, but I confess they have traveled sometimes to places where even finding a seat belt on the back seat isn't guaranteed and I deemed thinking about a safety seat utterly hopelessly unpractical (On top that we even flew through Russian airspace to get there). Should I feel guilty for that?

FinnGuyHelsinki · Post by **FinnGuyHelsinki** » Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:12 am

Rip wrote:
tummansininen wrote:Same for you in the car, so do you leave your seatbelt off? Maybe drive 20 over the limit, since there's little risk you'll die... today?
They have always used seats and belts in this country, but I confess they have traveled sometimes to places where even finding a seat belt on the back seat isn't guaranteed and I deemed thinking about a safety seat utterly hopelessly unpractical (On top that we even flew through Russian airspace to get there). Should I feel guilty for that?

That's not exactly true, seat belts are not mandatory even now if the car is old enough to not originally have them (and ones haven't been retroactively installed). The use of seat belts became mandatory in 1975 (front seats) and 1987 (back seats). There wasn't even speed limits in Finland before the early 1970's when they started developing the system. Still, when there are safety equipment available for use, it is plain stupidity to not use them.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon Aug 24, 2015 12:02 pm

FinnGuyHelsinki wrote: That's not exactly true

I meant that my kids have always used them in this country. However I have deemed the situation different on shorter visits to other countries, which is pretty analogous (apart from differences in law) to somebody wondering about the need to use them on temporary basis here.

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