Young child not in a safety seat... WWYD?

I have my boys in Graco Nautilus seats now because they got too tall in the body for their convertible seats but were clearly not ready for boosters. On our way home today, I saw a little girl who clearly wasn't ready either. She looked to be similar in age to my boys and was hanging halfway out of a rolled-down window shouting, "HI!" at the other cars. There is no way she could have been in any sort of restraint in that position. The front window was down as well so I'm not sure how the driver and other adult passenger in the front could be oblivious to her behavior but I attempted to get their attention anyway by beeping and pointing. They ignored me. I considered calling the police but my cell phone was left on the counter at home. I could just see her losing her balance and falling out of that window and it made me sad to know that it must be such a regular occurence that the driver and passenger weren't bothered by it.

 

That always boils my blood! I think if I saw a child hanging out as you said this little girl was, yes I would call the highway patrol. I see so many kids not in carseats and it makes me so upset! I hate it when I am behind someone and you can see a little head of an unrestrained child just bouncing around in the back seat or worse seeing a driver holding their tiny baby!

 

I would take down the license plate number and call it in. I'm pretty sure our state has a hotline specifically to report these issues, though thankfully I've never had to use it. If there is no specific number, I would just call the local police and tell them what you saw (if you had the license plate number anyway, otherwise there's not much point). I figure it's a lot like reporting a drunk driver - you're not going to try to get the person out of the car yourself, but hopefully you're also not going to just let them keep driving drunk if you can help it.

 

I once saw a mother take her 1 1/2 yo (about) in her lap in the front seat. I wrote down the license plate number and called 311 when I got home. They told me, next time to call 911 immediately and tell them the license plate number and the direction the car is heading to.

 

OH my WORD!! What is WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!! :cry: That poor baby!!!

 

The woman across the street has a daycare in her home. There is a new little boy over there that has a pretty irresponsible car-mommy. Each day when she goes to pick him up, she's out of that house in about 30 seconds and almost in a dead run to the car. She opens the back door for the little boy, then opens her own door, gets in and throws the car in reverse. Yesterday, the little boy wasn't even in the car yet! He's not in any kind of seat, and he's not even 5 years old! You can't even see his little head over the window. She was out of the driveway before this kid could have possibly buckled a seat belt.

What am I going to do? Well, today, I'm going to call the daycare provider and let her know that this is what's happening. She likely has no clue since she doesn't stand outside for pickup or dropoff. I'll see what she says. If she does nothing about it, then I'm taking down the license plate and calling the police today.

OH - there were FOUR total kids in the car yesterday. All young and none in seats. Yep, one was in the front seat.

 

One time I saw a mother holding her baby (9 to 12 months) in the passenger seat while her husband was driving. I was so mad that I called 9-1-1 from my cell phone (my DH was driving). I was on hold and eventually the car turned and so did we so I just hung up because I didnt' have the license number. It really made me upset to see it.

 

QUOTE(BridgePort @ May 28 2009, 08:58 PM) [snapback]1332326[/snapback]
I would take down the license plate number and call it in. I'm pretty sure our state has a hotline specifically to report these issues, though thankfully I've never had to use it. If there is no specific number, I would just call the local police and tell them what you saw (if you had the license plate number anyway, otherwise there's not much point). I figure it's a lot like reporting a drunk driver - you're not going to try to get the person out of the car yourself, but hopefully you're also not going to just let them keep driving drunk if you can help it.


I agree with this completely.
The last thing that I saw that was even similar was a woman had her infant, in the infant carrier in the front passenger seat of her minivan facing foward! (the other 5 seats in the rear were empty) I saw a cop trailing behind me so I slowed down, flagged him down- pointed her car out. He ended up following her but I dindt see if he actually stopped her because they turned and I was going straight. I was livid.
Im also one to write down a plate number and call the police. Someone has to ensure the safety of kids!!!

 

I would take the license plate number and call the cops non-emergency number and report it. That way an officer can go over to the house during his downtime and let them know what constitutes a proper child restraint.