Reporting Carseat Violations

I wasn't sure where to post this, but I see alot of car seat violations at work( the local water dept, we have a drive thru), and today I reported one for the first time. I woman had a baby, 6 months or less, sitting on her lap!! I waited to see if she strapped her back in before they left the parking lot, she didn't.

I called the local sheriff's office and they didn't seem as interested as I thought they would be. Is there a hotline or something I can call in the future, in addition to the local police? I am in NE Alabama.

I suppose you could call CPS since you would have their house address. Unfortunately, the cops don't seem to care much. Here it's only a $25 ticket anyway. That could be a lot of $ though if they enforced the rules,it's awful around here.

unfortunately, in many (possibly even most) states, child seat misuse/nonuse is not consider a CPS violation. Maybe if it were people would take it more seriously.

It seems like an obvious form of neglect since car crashes are the #1 cause of death to children!

Anyway, I keep the local police number programed into my phone ... I'm not sure about all states, but I've been told that where I am they have to respond - & the 1 time I hung around to see what happened they sure did! (3police SUVs cornered this woman, ticketed her & apparently they also make a condition that the adult make an appointment with a child passenger safety technician & provide proof of using a child safety seat)

I agree, it should be, but it isn't.

papooses said:

It seems like an obvious form of neglect since car crashes are the #1 cause of death to children!

Anyway, I keep the local police number programed into my phone ... I'm not sure about all states, but I've been told that where I am they have to respond - & the 1 time I hung around to see what happened they sure did! (3 police SUVs cornered this woman, ticketed her & apparently they also make a condition that the adult make an appointment with a child passenger safety technician & provide proof of using a child safety seat)

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That's great! But after they gave her a ticket, then what? Did they let her drive away with the baby? How did they handle that?

let me know if you find one Im in NE alabama as well and I have seen WAY too many violations to keep count The police seem to not care unless there is something juicy along with it(drugs, weapons, ect), but most of them are every day moms that seem to just not realize or know better.

Exact sentiments here! This is what I posted on another board Sunday night:

Okay, so DH and and I have been discussing what to do when we see a very *obvious* situation of a child not restrained. This all started by seeing a 2 yr old climbing back and forth from the passenger seat to the back bench (yes, going over the back of the seat!), a 4-6 yr old riding on mom's lap in the front passenger seat of an Expedition with empty backseats, and a 1 yr old buckled into the front passenger seat with a seat belt. All this in 2 days just boggles us! I can't find that our county (Hillsborough Co. FL, Tampa area) has any numbers, and I wonder if the officers really WANT to go and pull these people over? I know that they SHOULD, but I don't want to be calling dispatch all the time when they won't do anything. Any ideas? I have rolled down my window before at a lady that had her 9-12 mo old FF in the infant seat held in the car by the handle and told her to go to the police station and get a new seat for him (figuring that if he was under 12 mo and 20 lb they would tell her he HAS to be RFing- and a FF convertable would be better than a FF infant seat any day!) but that's not ideal, or practical all the time.
I guess I just want to strangle these parents. I realize that there are a lot of people that don't use seats long enough, or the right way, but at least they TRY and are legal!
Anyway, I guess this is a bit if a rant, but any help would be great. I have been waiting till I take my CPS class to ask, but I havn't heard about one coming up and I just can't wait after this weekend!



Joy
DD 8-21-03
Hoping for a 10/06 baby

tjham said:

That's great! But after they gave her a ticket, then what? Did they let her drive away with the baby? How did they handle that?

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Yes, there was no reason to keep the mother from her child & they don't have seats to just hand out all the time - I think it's great that a condition of her ticket is that she must provide proof of meeting with a child passenger safety technician & using a child safety restraint properly within a specific time frame Better than just a ticket & nothing else ... at least she's required to LEARN from the mistake