Car seat on Charter Tour Bus????

Ok....I thought through every aspect of our trip except for this one. I am traveling with my husband's softball team to Florida with my 19 month old. We opted to buy a Cosco Scenera carseat for this trip and then give to my mom so that is what we will be traveling with(we have a graco smart seat in our car).

We will be taking a bus to the airport(about 1.5 hours) then flying to Florida where I will be renting a car.....we stay there for a week then fly to Virginia where the bus meets us as they play games and then driving us back to PA(about 7 hours). I know buses are safer than cars, but I would feel better if my daughter were in a carseat on this bus. I think she will sleep/travel better as well. On the bus IDC if she is RF or FF even though she only knows to be RF, I just want her to not be running all over the bus!!!

Do you think that it is possible/safe to put ratcheting straps around the seat of the bus and use it similar to a seatbelt to strap her carseat in? I would just be similar to a lap belt. I had a bus driver last year when I was still coaching tell me that he has done this before with his grandkids.

What do you think? Is she safer trying to strap her in our trying to get her to sit in an adult seat??

punky00013 said:

Do you think that it is possible/safe to put ratcheting straps around the seat of the bus and use it similar to a seatbelt to strap her carseat in? I would just be similar to a lap belt. I had a bus driver last year when I was still coaching tell me that he has done this before with his grandkids.

What do you think? Is she safer trying to strap her in our trying to get her to sit in an adult seat??

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Is it possible? Sure, I don't see why not. Unless the seats were somehow configured in a way that make it impossible.

Is it safe? That's impossible to know since it would be completely un-tested. If the bus were to crash, you would essentially be using your child as a crash test dummy.

Would I ever recommend someone go against manufactures instructions and do this? Not a chance!

Would I ever do it myself, for my own (theoretical) child? Yeah, probably.

IF you decided to do this, do it knowing that the only thing you're really getting out of it, is having your DD contained and comfortable on the trip. IF the bus is involved in a collision, there is NO guarantee that your DD would be protected by the ratchet-strap-attached-car-seat-in-a-bus. In fact, it's entirely possible that the arrangement could actually cause harm in a crash. Then again, it's also theoretically possible that a ratchet-strap-attached-car-seat-in-a-bus might perform nearly as designed, and could save your DD's live if the bus were to crash. There's just NO way to tell.

I would likely choose to do it anyway, because in rare cases like this, I choose to weight the likelihood of the know risk (e.g. spending many miserable hours on a bus with a uncomfortable and unrestrained toddler) against the likelyhood of the unknown risk (e.g. the bus crashes, and the improperly "installed" car seat could cause more harm than good). :twocents:

YMMV

ETA: If I were to do this, I would probably "install" the seat RF as long as it fit that way (I'd bring a rolled towel or noodle to help with the recline if there were enough space). I'd do this for comfort and familiarity, and also so the kid couldn't kick the seat of the person sitting in front. I'd *hope* that the safety of being RF just might help make up for the funky "install" if the bus were to crash.

Oh, and some charter buses are equipped with seat belts. I have no idea what kind of belts they usually have though, or if those belts would be at all suitable to for installing a car seat.

I've been on charter buses with lap/shoulder belts, non-locking lap belts, and no belts at all. Some even apparently have LATCH anchors now, though they appear to be rare. I'd say it's worth bringing the seat to contain the kid with if nothing else- I don't know if I'd ratchet it down but it might be able to be propped if there are no seatbelts.