Infant seat in the front seat of a Saturn Vue

We are having an issue with a parent who refuses to move her infant seat/infant from the front seat of her Saturn Vue to the back seat. Her only reason for not moving her is that she "Doesn't want too" So what can I do? Is there a law against it? Is this a case for DCF?

Part of me wants to try and find pictures of what can happen to her baby and plaster her car with them.

Here is a general email that was sent out to local peeps and law enforcement in our area.

For all of you law enforcement officers out there: We know that putting a rear-facing infant in the front seat of a car is extremely dangerous, if not deadly. We know it is a VERY bad idea for a parent to do so. The question that has come up is, is it illegal? As far as I know, Florida law does not address the issue specifically. SO… if you pulled over a parent who had a rear-facing infant in the front seat and the parent refused to move the baby to the back seat, as a law enforcement officer what would your options be?



Our local preschool had an incident between two mothers today – one of whom had her baby rear-facing in the front seat and the other who tried to force her to move the baby – and the school would like to know the bottom line.



I welcome your feedback. Please respond at your earliest convenience.



Thanks,

Many state have a front seat law, so there's a good chance it's illegal. I tell parents that the airbag comes out between 200-300 miles per hour and that a blow to the top of the head of that magnitude is not survivable even for an adult. In crash tests of infant seats in front of airbags, the dummy is completely decapitated.

If a parent was not willing to move an infant after this info, I would inform them that I'm a mandatory reporter and that I will have no choice but to report the situation.

Sent from my iPhone using Car-Seat.Org

Is there a proper use law in your state? Because all infant seats have airbag warnings both in the manual and on the seat

I'm not a law enforcement officer, but if the parent looks in the manual, I'm sure she will see something similar to this:



So, if the law says that the child shall be in a properly used child restraint, and the parent goes against the manufacturers explicit instructions, then technically they would be violating the law.

I took this out of a Graco Snugride manual.

Does she at least have a button to turn off the airbag? If you can't convince her to put the baby in the back, hopefully she'll at least turn the airbag off.

VUE has a back seat - that actually fits carseats easily....no AB switch.

The picture shown above is usually on the visor of the front passenger seats in most cars I have ever been in. It clearly states on that vehicle to not do it.

taken from a 2009 saturn vue manual:

"A label on the sun visor says,
“Never put a rear-facing child
restraint in the front.” This is
because the risk to the rear-facing
child is so great, if the airbag
deploys."

Here is a link to the manual:
http://www.saturn.com/assets/en/pdf/owners/manuals/2009/2k09vue.pdf
The above statement is in section 1-30

A few years back, a woman from Idaho was charged with vehicular homicide in Washington after her baby was killed by an airbag. Lemme see if I can find a link...

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/woman_charged_in_spokane_after.html