Unrestrained kids - what do I do?

Twice now I've seen the parent of older DD's classmate putting his two children (a just-turned-3 year old and a 4 year old) into a car with no visible car seats or boosters, and without buckling them in. The first time I was unsure if they were buckled or not - I didn't see the dad buckle the kids in, but the vehicle was a pickup truck with only the one bench seat and was of a pre-shoulder belt vintage so I convinced myself that maybe they buckled themselves into lap belts.

Today I saw them getting into an ancient (20+ year old) convertible parked next to me and as I was getting the baby out of her seat I watched - since the convertible's top was down I could see that there were absolutely no car seats or boosters in the car. The 3 year old wanted to sit in the front seat, so he did, and neither child was buckled in. The back seat was jammed full of junk and trash, some of which I think the 4 year old ended up sitting on. The dad climbed in, didn't buckle himself in, and quickly pulled out of the lot into heavy traffic.

The law in our state is that children must be in a child restraint until 6 years AND 60 pounds. Neither of these children is anywhere near that old or heavy. Clearly there are some financial and possibly other issues for this family, but I was shocked to see a parent not even buckling in preschoolers.

So when I see it again (and I'm sure I will) what do I do - call that town's police non-emergency number or 911? I don't want to get in trouble for calling 911, but I worry that if I call the non-emergency number, nothing will happen. I am not comfortable approaching the father directly.

In my town, the police want you to call 911 (I've asked). You could call the non-emergency line *now* and give a heads-up about the time of day and location since he's a repeat offender. They may tell you to call 911 at the time you see it, maybe not.

When I saw something like this, I ended up calling 911. The people got to what I assume was their house before the officer caught up to them At least the 911 operator told us that the officer would still stop and talk to them.

I called 911 as well and I followed them until the cop got there. I stayed on the phone with the operator and told them where the car turned and such.

I'm with the folks who'd call 911. I've read reports of unbelted children being killed in 10 mph collisions, which is slower than just about every driver on the road.

Yeah I would call 911 too

I have a neighbor who puts her 7 year old in the front seat. She wears a seatbelt.

Would you call 911 on her? I bothers me that she does this, but I don't know the mother that well and I'm not sure how she'd accept it if I approached her about putting her daughter in the backseat with a booster.

Mom2natalie said:

I have a neighbor who puts her 7 year old in the front seat. She wears a seatbelt. Would you call 911 on her? I bothers me that she does this, but I don't know the mother that well and I'm not sure how she'd accept it if I approached her about putting her daughter in the backseat with a booster.

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Depending upon the laws in your area, there likely is nothing that they can do since she is wearing a seat belt.

Mom2natalie said:

I have a neighbor who puts her 7 year old in the front seat. She wears a seatbelt.

Would you call 911 on her? I bothers me that she does this, but I don't know the mother that well and I'm not sure how she'd accept it if I approached her about putting her daughter in the backseat with a booster.

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Check your local laws regarding boosters. While children *should* be in the back seat at least until age 13, it isn't law in every state; it's just recommended by the NHTSA. That said, I've written several reports this year where children just at that border (e.g., 11 and 12 year olds) died in the front seats while the parent next to them or a similar-aged child in the back seat lived. The recommendation is there for a reason; young children simply don't have the musculoskeletal structure to deal with sitting in the front seat, and most parents just don't understand that.

I'm in GA. I'm pretty sure they're supposed to booster until 8. The only reason I don't know is because we're going to booster out daughter as long as necessary. She's 6.5 and JUST got out of her 5 pt and we bought two new HBB for her.