Share the scary thing you have seen concering misuse/nonuse ect.

[My Sweet Blessings]

seeing all these comments makes me paranoid that one of you might see me and get the wrong idea! I often nurse my baby in the car (driver's seat)with it running while parked in a store parking lot. People must thing I am about to drive away with him in my lap or that i just arrived with him in my lap. i turn the car on for air (really hot here) and music. I am sure people see me getting in and out with my baby.

I have seen a woman in the passenger seat holding a newborn while eating fried chicken. we got the the light and there happened to be a cop stopped next to us. i told him. he waited for the other cars to pass and he pulled them over then, less than a week ago, i was in the drive thru at taco bell. the people in front of me had a child no more than 18 month running around the backseat. i called 911 and asked to be switched over to the nonemergency to get a cop out there. since i was in the drive tru, they said they would try to get someone out there but couldnt guarantee they would get there fast enough. well, when i got the pay window and them to the get your order window, i asked the employee to stall giving them their food the cop came in time and pulled them over.

 

[mommy4girls]

I saw a lady who used bungy cords and other accessories to install her seat. I would have said something, but she doesn't take ANY criticism well (I mean ANY and very well may have punched my lights out). So I just prayed for her dd and one day I saw she got pulled over and she and the CHP were by her dd's side of the car:thumbsup:

I have seen a lot of scary things and I call CHP's non-emergency number all the time (getting transferred one time to 911). I saw a lady driving fast with her maybe 2y/o on her lap (I thought she was a puppy at first!).

 

[Jackielyn]

I think ones that get me are when people use aftermarket products like the bundle-me and those strap covers (aftermarket obviously) or babies in infant carriers and the chest clip is too low or the harness is way too loose! bah, drives me batty! from what it sounds i guess i should be glad they are even in a carseat!

 

[Defrost]

The weirdest thing I've ever seen was a five-year-old (at least, based on the school he'd just been picked up from) put into a really old OHS carseat. No harness, he just climbed in and put the shield down over his head. And this was an OLD OHS - the frame was metal, fake leather cover. Plus the kid was way too big for the seat, the top of the shell reached the bottom of his neck, I could see the color of his shirt when we got behind them.

I am still just so completely flabbergasted. He'd have been safer in just the seat belt, but this parent clearly thought this option was better - WHY??? I just can't imagine what their thought process must have been, unless it was simply "The law says he has to have a seat, so here - he's got a seat."

 

[katiesmommy]

I saw twins about a month ago, mom was getting them out of the car and putting them in a stoller with stroller seats laid back, so I'm gussing under a year definitly if they couldn't even sit up. I glanced in the van they were in as she was pulling the second one out, no other kids in this vehicle, and two highback turbos in the seats. That is most definitly the worst misuse I've seen.

 

[MommyBoha]

I saw a 9-11 month old rear facing in a turbobooster with no seatbelt and the mom pushing them back in the seat. a one year old, in nothing at all. This was a co-workers kid. She got a car seat lecture that day.

 

[HEVY]

I have a friend, 10 kids, doesn't believe in proper use of car seats. She buys them I think cause it's something that kids are supposed to have, ya know like a crib or diapers. When her baby was newborn she let me adjust the seat belts, find out later when her BF calls me to rant, that she said I just did it she didn't know and if she did she wouldn't have let me do it. The BF claimed the baby was uncomfortable. But recently I asked him what he used, she's 2 1/2 now, he said a booster, no back. I explained the law and the recommended age and weight and he seem to be concerned, but he got off the phone real quick. The child is about 33 inches and weighs hmm under 30lbs. The mom don't want to hear it she calls me La Loca everytime I bring it up. I know that was long, and yes we see the usual, kids jumping in the car, mostly I see infants not in the seat right.

 

[ZephyrBlue]

Here in New Mexico, I've seen the following (most of them multiple times)

-OLD, early 1990's seats with no fabric or foam (mostly OHS)
-2yo's in backless boosters (I see this often at dd's preschool- the younger siblings of her classmates)
-FF buckets
-RF buckets in the front seat of newer cars w/airbags (not sure if the airbag is turned off, though)
-toddlers in no seat at all
-kids sitting in seats without the harness around them at all

Yesterday I was at the mall and saw 2 very well-dressed women get into a brand new Mercedes sedan with a little boy who couldn't have been older than 3 (based on size and behavior) and he was sitting in the back seat with just a seatbelt.

I see lots of new vehicles with really crappy, obvioiusly expired, dirty with twisted straps seats here. People with really nice vehicles and really cruddy child restraints bugs the living crap out of me for some reason.

 

[abacus2]

Aside from the toddlers and preschoolers running around in the back seat completely unbuckled, these are some of the scary things I've seen:

Infant seat in the front seat in front of what I'm sure was an active airbag.

An ancient OHS seat clearly in use (shield was up in the parked car, sippy cup next to it) with a lap belt VERY loosely buckled across the front of the seat, not through a beltpath at all.

Another old OHS installed FFing with the belt through the RFing belt path for what I later overheard to be a 16lb kid. I mentioned this to the pediatrician; I hope they did something. I overheard the kid's first name and what he was being tested for. I really wonder if these parents thought that installing the seat RFing meant putting the belt through that path, not realizing that the seat should face the back of the car.

A friend who had her three kids in the car with her when the car was totaled. I told her about the car seats needing to be replaced and suggested some ways she could do that without it costing her a fortune. I know she's still using the same infant seat. She seems to view the accident more as reason to believe her seats work well rather than reason to replace them.

Tons of people with 3 yr olds in boosters and 6 yr olds in just seat belts.

 

[Judi]

I have a Fisher Price T shield that we just took out of a car last week.

- two 18 m olds in infant seats FF
- 2 m old in a booster (moms says "why do the police keep pulling me over")
- instead of a pool noodle, use a nice little ramp made of wood and use a tye down on the back of the base
- OHS seat with the OHS cut off and a blanket laid over the stubs
- lots of 5 points made into 3 point
- couldn't get the straps out, so just cut them and sewed them back on
- of course yesterdays "my Dr said I need an OHS seat FF for me 9 m old"
- lots of loose seats, twisty straps, low harness clips (99.9% by last statistics)
- lots of after market products

 

[amyg530]

OMG!!! I guess it would also be acceptable to use a bouncy seat as a carseat too, Lol

IIRC there was someone here who has seen that

 

[Synchro246]

Besides unrestrained children galore?
The two that come to mind immediately are:
A combo seat with the harness still in place and the seatbelt used thru the belt guides for install.
A in infant with straps so loose that they were draped over her little arms & aftermarket padding, etc.

 

[BudgieStew]

The usual...babies in arms of front seat passengers, FF bucket seats, 1 year olds in boosters. Old T-shields and OHS seats galore. I rarely see a convertible seat being used RF. I guess its standard to go from bucket to FF...which is scary.

I cringe every single day I pick DS up from daycare and some parents just toss their kid in the front of the truck with nothing. These are kids 4 and under and its not a once in a while its a everyday thing. The one Father I assume is putting his youngest child in something in the back seat but I have yet to see what it is.

At least my daycare providor passed on the info to another parent for the one seat that had been left out on the porch that it had been recalled a few weeks before. I have the same seat and it had a similar DOM. It was also one of the elusive last seats that RF to 35 lbs but sadly was being used FF.

One day I was getting something out of a close friend's SUV and found that she had somehow installed the lower LATCH clips to two top tether anchors.
The car had no LATCH just top tethers...and then was fastened in by the seatbelt and still was moving all over the place.
I am not even sure if the seatbelt was put through the correct path for FF.

I reinstalled it using the seatbelt and top tether outboard as I could not get a good fit in the center.(which is what she wanted)
I still was not happy with the install as I think the base needed to be removed to get a it in tighter and her leather seats made it slip more then it should.
She had an appt. at the police station later that week to get the seat checked and I never followed up with what they did. I really should the next time they visit.

She even told me that she had read the manual recently trying to figure out how to install it. It was not caring about car seat safety on her part but I guess the manual not being clear enough.

Other friend's with a DS two days younger then ours was puzzled by the mention of using a top tether. Required for all seat FF in Canada.
They had the same seat as we did a Eddie Bauer 3/1 which our DS outgrew almost a year ago and their son is much much taller then our DS.
I have a feeling that their DS is using it and its too small or they have switched to a booster despite him not reaching the legal limits yet. At this point I really don't think I want to know.

 

[Gsanmb]

Oh my gosh, the things I have seen make my heart race and my hair stand on end:

(Mainly in the context of dropping off/picking up at preschool or carpools) -- the main thing is that everyone wants a 5 person carpool so they only have to drive once a week, G-d forbid they should have to figure out how to make it work with proper child seats :

*double buckling 3 year olds
*OHS used as boosters
*kids under 10 in the front seat
* 2 year olds in no-back boosters
*PUFFY COATS AND SNOWSUITS EVERYWHERE
*Expensive, late model cars with dirty old twisted-belt, expired seats used improperly
*Kids who routinely put the shoulder belt behind their back and roll their eyes when you tell them to wear it properly.

Ugh, I can't tell you. When I was called about a carpool I made my carseat requirements known (and that I would provide ALL carseats for my own car and also have one for my dd that I would use for other cars) I was quickly dropped from the carpool roster. OK by me since I don't trust anyone anyway.

I get ridiculed for ERF but that's cool. Last year and then again this year I put out a long email about carseat safety requirements (the law, and the safety of ERF, the law on boosters, etc.) on our community email bulletin board. I got pummeled on the no-snowsuit thing (you mean they'd have to go out and warm up the car? INCONVENIENT!). BUT a few people emailed me and then called me for input on what to buy, and how to use it (disclaimer: I made it clear I am not a CPS tech, just a concerned citizen).

Sigh. We seriously live in a desert wasteland in terms of carseat safety, but the irony is it's in a metro-NY area that should know better and can definitely afford to do the right thing at whatever price point (low to high).

 

[cdncasper]

I can't remember all of it but some of the ones that stick in my mind are:
--2 yr old sitting beside his AOE (very loosely installed)
--2 1/2 yr old 28lb in a backless booster with seatbelt under arm (his harnessed seat was in the 3rd row)
--convertible carseat in middle of backseat installed with UAS/LATCH attached to the outboard top tether anchors.
--tons of 3-4 yr olds in seatbelts or boosters
--3 1/2 yr old in very loose and tilted expired t-shield
--3 yr old in an OHS carseat with no harness and no OHS with seatbelt put like a booster and than behind the carseat.
--little baby (around 8-10 mths) in an excersaucer kinda wedged in a minivan
--harness for an AOE put in backwards--still haven't figured out how it was done
--harness on an evenflo combo that wasn't put thru the shell, just thru the cover
--RF carseat in the front seat and adults in the backseat
--9 mth old in a Graco combo--parents trying it at Sears

 

[Momto1bigkiddo]

**2 small children standing up in the back seat, on the interstate.

**Preschool-aged child hanging out of front seat passenger window while car was moving through a parking lot. No car seat or booster seen in back.

**babies/toddlers in car-seats with only the chest clip buckled. I see this commonly at my son's preschool.

**Infant Carrier car seat installed forward facing.

**Crooked and terribly loose car seat installs in parked cars.

**Grossly expired seats.

**Booster being used incorrectly. Child was way too small/young to be riding in booster or belt was positioned incorrectly.---usually both.

**3 year old riding in front seat with no seat belt.

**Severely twisted harness, like thin little ropes

 

[DesertQueen]

Where are you? I wasnt sure what UAE was. Sorry is I am just stupid.

I should have written it out fully - it's not a country that one hears about a lot in the U.S.! United Arab Emirates

 

[Judi]

Bailing twine being used as straps.

 

[mish]

I see a lot of scary stuff. The worst I ever saw was when I was just driving (not at a car seat check). There was a boy that was probaby five years old hanging out of a window!! They were making a turn, and he was so far out the window I could see his legs. My seven year old son started freaking out, yelling "Mom, you have to call the cops! He could die!" It was really scary.

 

[jaded]

IIRC there was someone here who has seen that

Yep, I've seen it. The seatbelt was thru the metal base part of the bouncer seat. Hey, at least it was rearfacing.