Just got back from Germany - no booster required

[Guest]

We went to Germany with our 8 yr old - she is lightweight - just hit 50 lbs. a few months ago and tall - 53 inches. When we went to rent our car they kept insisting she shouldn't be in a booster. I kept insisting she should. They told me it could be trouble with the police but I held my ground. She prefers to sit in a HBB anyway. I don't know what the law is (and tried to research it but decided I'd go with the laws of physics) but apparently it isn't the custom for an 8 yr old to be in a booster.

A lot of the cabs (Mercedes Benz & Audi) have integrated boosters that simply raise the height of the seat a couple of inches. They just pop up the cushion using a release below it. She liked that but I didn't like the looks of no hip protection.

Anyway - just thought I'd share.

[Neatfreak]

I'm impressed that the taxi cabs had integrated boosters! Cool!

[TXAggieTech]

We have found that all the taxi cabs also had car seats, and knew how to use them. We still used our MAs but inlaws used the boosters they had for my neice.

[Morganthe]

We went to Germany with our 8 yr old - she is lightweight - just hit 50 lbs. a few months ago and tall - 53 inches. When we went to rent our car they kept insisting she shouldn't be in a booster. I kept insisting she should. They told me it could be trouble with the police but I held my ground. She prefers to sit in a HBB anyway. I don't know what the law is (and tried to research it but decided I'd go with the laws of physics) but apparently it isn't the custom for an 8 yr old to be in a booster.


Good for you to stick to your guns like that!! Seriously, they were in the wrong! I'm assuming this was the rental car company? You would have been in so much trouble if Politzei pulled you over or an accident had occurred

I remembered that it used to be mandatory for up to 12 year olds to be in boosters for Germany. I was active duty AF at Bitburg at the time the law came about, so I had to inform military personnel of the change around 1991-2.

I just checked to see if it was still the same. Yep:
In Germany, however, the high-end figure is more conservative, in the sense noted above. German law puts this figure at up to 12 years or up to 1.5 m tall (4 ft. 11 in.);

moreover, children under age of 10 may not travel in the front passenger seat of a car, the exceptions being: (a) a child younger than 1 year old seated in a rear-facing safety seat, (b) a vehicle with no rear seats or seats that temporarily cannot be used, and (c) a situation in which all rear seats are already occupied by children under 10 years old.

Irony is that I found it on a Car Lease (http://www.ideamerge.com/leasing/childseata_2.html) website for Europe.
And here it is again: European Baby Car Seats & Laws (http://www.sciuridae.co.uk/child_car_seats/european_child_seat_law.htm)

[UlrikeDG]

German law (http://www.britax-roemer.de/sicherungspflicht.php?lang=en&navid=1) is that children must ride in a child restraint/booster until age 12 or until they are 4'11" (150 cm) tall. While I did see kids riding unrestrained or improperly restrained, those mostly seemed to be (Turkish) immigrants.

When we left Germany (after living there for 4.5 years), we used a shuttle service to get from Heidelberg to the Frankfurt airport, and when we made the reservation, they made it very clear that we needed to provide a child seat for every child riding in the vehicle (which was a minivan-ish thing that we don't have in the US). When the vehicle arrived at our door, the driver also made sure right away that my kids would be legally restrained in his vehicle.

It doesn't surprise me that the taxis had integrated boosters. My understanding is that the driver, not the parent, would be subject to fines if the Polizei had pulled him over, and they definitely don't want that!