OPINION: Child passenger restraints are a must

I’m sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves. In 11 years of law enforcement, I have worked thousands of accidents. Many of these accidents resulted in people being injured or killed, and on occasion those victims were children. But not once have I worked an accident where a small child was injured or killed, who was properly restrained in a child safety seat.

George code 40-8-76 requires that all children under six years of age being transported in a passenger automobile, van or pickup truck shall be in a child passenger restraining system (a.k.a. child safety seat) appropriate for such child’s height and weight. That the child shall be restrained in the rear seat of the motor vehicle if it is equipped with a rear seat. And that the child passenger restraining system shall be installed and used in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. There are very few exceptions to this law.

What does this mean? This means that until your child turns six, he must be in a child passenger restraining system, or “child safety seat.” That the child must meet the height and weight requirements for that restraining system, and that it must be installed in accordance with the manufacturers directions.

Would you allow your child to jump from a speeding automobile? Or run across the road in front of oncoming traffic? Allowing your child to ride in a vehicle unrestrained can be just as deadly. Nobody knows when the next traffic accident will happen, or who will be involved. I have often heard the excuses, “my child hates car seats and won’t stay in one,” or “we’re only going just right up the road.” To that, I respond that the vast majority of automobile accidents occur within a few miles of home, or “just right up the road,” and that children don’t get a say in whether or not they are restrained. If your child wanted to drive, you would let him or her? No, that wouldn’t be safe, they might be killed. So why allow a small child to decide whether or not he/she rides in a “safety seat,” when the stakes are just as high? There is a reason we don’t allow children to make decisions that might involve life or death. They are incapable of understanding the consequences of their actions, or of weighing risk and making an informed decision.

I know that it is unpleasant to listen to a child cry because he or she is strapped in a “safety seat” when they would rather freely roam the automobile. As a parent of five children, I have had to listen to those cries many times in the past. But I would rather listen to the cries of an uncomfortable child than the wailing of parents mourning the loss of that same child. All across this country there are many thousands of parents who can no longer hear their children cry, and who wish that they had been more concerned for the safety of their children as they were “only going right up the road.”

David Larkins is a Madison County resident, a former lieutenant with the Madison County Sheriff’s Department and current employee of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.