Curious (must have had too much caffine today
):
1. Has anyone actually been caught/fined?
2. What if I documented I had persued having a 3rd anchor installed and was
denied? I'd think it would be rather hard to enforce a law with a glaring exception/issue of "I don't have one. I can't get one because manufacturers prohibit installing a 3rd."
3. Does the "can't retrofit vehicles that have anchors" hold if the anchor is a heavy duty one - for an EZ on or Special Needs seat? Would that be a "work around" for a 3rd tether?
5. Has anyone pointed out the fact that it's impossible to tether a seat when there ISN'T an anchor available (you can't share the anchor)? - What was the response?
1. Yes, failing to tether a ff'ing seat is a fine all on it's own, seperate from installation and use. We ticketed for that at our check stop when we completed our tech training. (Our class went out on a road check instead of doing a clinic.)
2. Basically if you don't have it you can't transport more ff'ing children in your vehicle than what you have anchors. Sucks, but that's the way it is...
3. I'm not sure, because we don't have Ez-on harness or the like here. I'm sure some special needs seats probably use heavy weight anchors, but I'm not sure exactly what we have for special needs seats - if I ever encountered a parent who needed one, I'd have to contact Transport Canada.
5. Yes, we discussed this in our class, and the response was no tether anchor than it's illegal to transport a child in a ff'ing child restraint in that position. Basically you have to select another seating position, or another vehicle.
very good questions.
I even asked a Canadian tech to see if her information listed a tether anchor location or part for that position in my car and she said they don't have one either.
Personally, I think if they're going to require parents to use them, they should require manufacturers to provide them for all vehicles.
This is actually the reason why so many cars started coming with TA's prior to the introduction of LATCH.
It might be interesting to note, that kids under 6 and 40lbs can't legally be transported in a vehicle without a car seat with the exception of a taxi and vehicles leased/rented for no more than 2 wks. So it's illegal to transport a 3yr old on a motorhome that doesn't have proper seating positions to install a car seat.
I don't really have an opinion on this... it sucks when parents ask and you have to tell them that they're right about having to get a different vehicle if they needed another tether point.
The good thing about the mandatory tether use in CAnada, is that with the increase in weight limits, Transport Canada will also be requiring vehicle manufacturers to test and certify the tether anchors to higher weights. I'm not sure what model year that's supposed to come into effect though and I don't remember for sure if it will affect lower anchor weights or not.