Talked to the police today...

I had to take a defensive driving class (1st ticket - cop in front of reduced speed sign pulled me). We watched a safety video that talked about how important it was to put babies rear facing "even though they prefer to ff". Unfortunately the infant shown was at like a 75 degree angle. Then they said that once a child hits 20 lbs they NEED to be turned ff and they showed a picture of a little one ff in an old tshield type seat with the straps nearly dangling off his shoulders.

Afterwards I talked to the officier, who is a superviser. I told her I was interested in carseat safety and had questions about how the local dept. handled violations. She said they took them VERY seriously and would pull anyone they saw, and that I could call the nonemergency number to report someone. She went on to say that there was no excuse for not having a seat because the dept would give you a free seat!

She said that they had every kind except infant carriers (combo, hbb, bb). She also said that they got all kinds of grants for free seats and probably had over a 100, and that she knew atleast 2 other nearby depts did too!! Now when I was at the health dept looking for boosters for my friend, they said that they did not know of anyone who could help (even though they are only 2 blocks away).

Now for the bad news. Encouraged by her response I went on to discuss extended rearfacing. She looked at me like I had two heads and told me that you HAD to turn kids at 20#, because the carseats were not made for heavier kids, and what about their poor legs. I told her about the extended rf album, newer recommendations, and extended rf scandavian countries, but she just said that's not what the manuel says and how could a kid be comfortable. She said that her dept would tell you to turn a 20# (even though VA law is 20# AND one year).

well, she's absolutely WRONG about RF - send her to Michael Nash, CPST-I and Chesterfield county police officer. Or Lee Bailey, CPST-I, New Kent county Sherrif's office. Their contact information is on the NHTSA web site.

There needs to be someone over her that needs to be notified of the correct information... that's awful, is there any CPST that you can contact in your area that could maybe offer "free" education sessions to the police dept.... ???

Are you willing to tell us in which geographic area of Virginia you live (No. VA, Tidewater, Central, Western, etc.)?

I live in Fairfax County (No. VA). If I was in a class like that, I would DEFINITELY contact the Fairfax County Police Department to talk whomever I needed in order to get things changed! The lack of information that officer had about child passenger safety is horrifying!

vamom said:

Now for the bad news. Encouraged by her response I went on to discuss extended rearfacing. She looked at me like I had two heads and told me that you HAD to turn kids at 20#, because the carseats were not made for heavier kids, and what about their poor legs.

Click to expand...

Not made for heavier children? Huh. Are there even ANY seats currently on the market that have a 20 pound RF limit? I thought all those seats were LONG GONE.

What about their legs? Has anyone ever heard of any children dying from breaking their legs? I know it could happen (it happened to an adult friend of my mom's when he broke his leg), but it would be EXTREMELY rare. Has anyone ever heard of a child dying from a neck or spine injury? Of course!

vamom said:

but she just said that's not what the manuel says and how could a kid be comfortable. She said that her dept would tell you to turn a 20# (even though VA law is 20# AND one year).

Click to expand...

What manual is she reading? Are there any CURRENT manuals that say to turn a child at 20 pounds? I kind of doubt it!

How could a kid be comfortable? Well, actually, I would think that RF is MORE comfortable than FF. While I think that comfort is important, safety is FAR more important. Even if RF is slightly uncomfortable for a child (which I don't know why it would be), it is worth compromising some comfort for safety.