I'm curious if anyone knows the answer to my burning question. If, say, a police officer has to remove a child from a situation do they have seats in their cars to strap them in?
I know when my nephew was hospitalized he was always transported in the ambulance, and helicopter strapped in his infant seat, tubes and all.
But how does it work in an emergency situation or such?
A few people have touched on this...but you're mixing apples and oranges here.
Many police vehicles or cruisers are equipped with plastic benches in the rear and/or 'cages' that keep the driver/officer safe. These are incompatible with safely installing a car seat in most cases.
Most police departments have other vehicles (undercover, detective bureau, administrative, etc.) that they could utilize if a car seat was needed to transport a child.
Do most department have these car seats? No. Because their frequency of need is very small. Police Departments are not good places for children, so in my experience they'll keep the child at the location found whenever possible, until a suitable guardian can be located...rather than transport.
My guess is that departments that don't own seats would attempt to locate a seat for a child who needed one if possible if they really needed to transport. i.e. At my small department, if I were working they'd likely call me to bring my seat or my vehicle. Or one of the officers who was a parent might go to HQ and grab his own child's seat. That sort of thing.
As for a child who is a PATIENT being transported in an ambulance, that's a horse of a whole different color. In an emergency, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...but those of us involved in both CPS and EMS education are doing our best to educate EMS personnel about how to maximize children's safety in ambulances. Sadly, more than 10,000 ambulance crashes a year injure or kill someone. Most ambulance crash fatalities or major injuries occur in the rear compartment, when occupants are unrestrained or improperly restrained, at intersections and during emergency operation.
Firemomof3...in some cases it is acceptable to put a car seat in a Captain's chair that faces the rear of the ambulance. It needs to be installed with the forward-facing belt path. It's better to have it installed with both belt paths on the stretcher, but sometimes that isn't ideal. The Captain's chair is a better choice than no restraint at all...or installing on the side-facing bench seat. (Although my understanding is there is some discussion that the bench seat might be ok after all. Haven't gotten any more into that.)
If I had my way, every ambulance in the US would have a SafeGuard Transport on board to transport pediatric patients. You can read about it here if you're interested:
http://www.safeguardseat.com/industries/ambulance-safety.php
If they can they transport the child in their own car seat but they usually just instal it into the captains seat which is totally wrong :hitselfonhead:
