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Children in cars

  • 07-11-2007 3:15pm
    #1
    hawker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 500 ✭✭✭


    Hope I'm in the right forum.

    Is there anything in the rotr which states a child cannot sit in the front seat of a car?


Comments

  • #2
    L1011
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 71,581 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    hawker wrote: »
    Hope I'm in the right forum.

    Is there anything in the rotr which states a child cannot sit in the front seat of a car?

    Unless it has changed:

    Children aged under 12 or under 4'11 are not allowed in the front seat. e.g. a tall ten year old is allowed, as is a shortarse 12 year old.


  • #3
    galwaytt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,823 ✭✭✭✭galwaytt


    Correct - no short/young people in the front.


    Unless, of course, your car is a two-seater, in which there is no front or rear seat - just seats !

    Ode To The Motorist

    “And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, generates funds to the exchequer. You don't want to acknowledge that as truth because, deep down in places you don't talk about at the Green Party, you want me on that road, you need me on that road. We use words like freedom, enjoyment, sport and community. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent instilling those values in our families and loved ones. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the tax revenue and the very freedom to spend it that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a bus pass and get the ********* ********* off the road” 



  • #4
    hawker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 500 ✭✭✭hawker


    Thanks folks.

    I cannot see it anywhere in the rotr or on the road safety website. It does state that children have to be in booster seats up to the age of 12. But it doesn't state that they cannot be in the front of the car. Am I missing something?


  • #5
    Snarler
    Closed Accounts Posts: 100 ✭✭Snarler


    What is the reasoning for that rule? I've never really understood it myself.


  • #6
    L1011
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 71,581 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    More likely to fly through the window in a crash than if they hit the back of the person in front, I suspect... probably comes from the pre-seatbelt-rules days.


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  • #7
    Bogger77
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,857 ✭✭✭Bogger77


    Standard seat belt/air bag config is for persons over 5ft tall.


  • #8
    antodeco
    Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,641 ✭✭✭✭antodeco


    What I find interesting is that I know a fair amount of people under 4'11, plus, without sounding racist, alot of philipino's are very small. Whats the work around there? Surely a 5 foot 9 year old (assumption!) is safer than a 4'9 35 year old by that rationale??


  • #9
    L1011
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 71,581 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Height restriction is for under 12s only. e.g. a 5 foot 9 year old is allowed in the front...


  • #10
    Padraig Mor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,654 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    I presume the OP asks this in relation to the incident in Newmarket, Co Cork yesterday?


  • #11
    microgirl
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 430 ✭✭microgirl


    MYOB wrote: »
    Height restriction is for under 12s only. e.g. a 5 foot 9 year old is allowed in the front...

    Ehhh, are you sure about that? What I've always understood by it is that you have to be *both* over 12 and over a minimum height. Or at least that the height restriction is the more important one (as in yes, ok, perhaps the above scenario would be ok, although I don't think so, but that certainly the scenario you describe in your first comment, a 4'9" 12-year-old, would not be allowed in the front seat).

    I understood this to be, or was told this to be, because the seatbelt won't sufficiently protect someone smaller. It'll cut across their neck or whatever.

    As for the smaller adults - well I'm 5'2"-5'3" and I have to have a cushion on the seat under me in order to be able to see enough of the road to drive safely and for the seatbelt to be in a comfortable position. I do however see a lot of drivers who clearly can't see the wheels of the car in front of them. Bloody ridiculous.


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  • #12
    L1011
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 71,581 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    microgirl wrote: »
    Ehhh, are you sure about that? What I've always understood by it is that you have to be *both* over 12 and over a minimum height. Or at least that the height restriction is the more important one (as in yes, ok, perhaps the above scenario would be ok, although I don't think so, but that certainly the scenario you describe in your first comment, a 4'9" 12-year-old, would not be allowed in the front seat).

    I understood this to be, or was told this to be, because the seatbelt won't sufficiently protect someone smaller. It'll cut across their neck or whatever.

    As for the smaller adults - well I'm 5'2"-5'3" and I have to have a cushion on the seat under me in order to be able to see enough of the road to drive safely and for the seatbelt to be in a comfortable position. I do however see a lot of drivers who clearly can't see the wheels of the car in front of them. Bloody ridiculous.

    From being a precocious and massive 10 year old way back in the mists of time (well, the 1990s), thats definitely the way it was then as I read up on it and used it to convince the parents to chuck the fecking booster seat in the back and let me up front... But as the OP has said, they're (and I'm) having trouble confirming its still that way.


  • #13
    DonJose
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,470 ✭✭✭DonJose


    Padraig Mor wrote: »
    I presume the OP asks this in relation to the incident in Newmarket, Co Cork yesterday?

    Was that child a front seat passenger?


  • #14
    Kali
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,601 ✭✭✭Kali


    Is there anything in the rotr which states a child cannot sit in the front seat of a car?

    On an associated point are the "rules of the road" the actual "legal laws of the road" or merely guidelines for safe use?


  • #15
    Esel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,312 ✭✭✭✭Esel
    Not Your Ornery Onager


    Boosters or child seats, afaik, are required to prevent the person 'submarining' under the regular seatbelt and so suffering injury.

    Not your ornery onager



  • #16
    Padraig Mor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,654 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    DonJose wrote: »
    Was that child a front seat passenger?

    The Gardai are "investigating" whether the five year old girl apparently killed by an airbag was in the front seat of the car.


  • #17
    Hifive
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 495 ✭✭Hifive


    So, if my 4 yr old is in her child seat (with harness) in the front passenger seat (no passenger airbag) and the other two kids are in their child seats in the back of my car, am I breaking the law?
    If so, I've been doing so for over a year!


  • #18
    hawker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 500 ✭✭✭hawker


    Hifive wrote: »
    So, if my 4 yr old is in her child seat (with harness) in the front passenger seat (no passenger airbag) and the other two kids are in their child seats in the back of my car, am I breaking the law?
    If so, I've been doing so for over a year!

    The question doesn't relate to the incident in Newmarket on Tuesday. Like Hifive, I mentioned the fact that I sometimes have my 4 yr old on a booster seat, properly restrained, in the front of my car to a few colleagues who questioned my thinking and claiming I was in fact breaking the law.

    However I have cleared it up (was onto RSA). It is not illegal to have a child in the front of your car provided they are in a proper seat and properly restrained.


  • #19
    snaps
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭snaps


    Old thread I know, but is this still the same now. Can I have my 5 year old in a proper Childs seat in the front? I ask as I want to put part of the rear seat down for luggage and I can't get 2 Childs seats in the back of the car then.


  • #20
    TestTransmission
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,106 ✭✭✭✭TestTransmission


    snaps wrote: »
    Old thread I know, but is this still the same now. Can I have my 5 year old in a proper Childs seat in the front? I ask as I want to put part of the rear seat down for luggage and I can't get 2 Childs seats in the back of the car then.

    Start a new one. :)


This discussion has been closed.
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