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Your thoughts on airbags?

  • 24-03-2009 7:44am
    #1
    Thoie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,344 ✭✭✭


    I saw someone I know put their 5 year old in the front seat, in a child booster seat (can't remember what car it is, but it's fairly new) recently. I was a bit taken aback. I casually asked if the passenger airbag was turned off, and his answer was basically "No, I don't want to think about it, and sure there are airbags everywhere in the car anyway". I think his car has rear side airbags.

    Ignore the legality of the situation (afaik it's just illegal, full stop). Initially I just thought he was a moron (and still not convinced otherwise) - does anyone know the relative safety of child facing a front airbag versus having a side impact airbag?


Comments

  • #2
    Seth Brundle
    Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 41,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle


    side airbags don't tend to hit the kid straighton in the head and breaking their neck!


  • #3
    robtri
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,473 ✭✭✭robtri


    Thoie wrote: »
    I saw someone I know put their 5 year old in the front seat, in a child booster seat (can't remember what car it is, but it's fairly new) recently. I was a bit taken aback. I casually asked if the passenger airbag was turned off, and his answer was basically "No, I don't want to think about it, and sure there are airbags everywhere in the car anyway". I think his car has rear side airbags.

    Ignore the legality of the situation (afaik it's just illegal, full stop). Initially I just thought he was a moron (and still not convinced otherwise) - does anyone know the relative safety of child facing a front airbag versus having a side impact airbag?

    maybe the car had the ability to turn of the front airbags..... a few cars have this now, you can manually turn them of.......


  • #4
    DubTony
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,267 ✭✭✭DubTony


    Why the hell do people put kids on the front seats of cars? I see it every day. One woman told me one day "sure we only live up the road". She actually lives 3 miles away on a bad bendy country road. But hey, it's Oireland and sure nobody really gives a sh*te.


  • #5
    alias no.9
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭alias no.9


    The bigger risk is with smaller babys in rear facing seats because an aribag will drive the rear facing seat into the seatback, potentially crushing the baby or at the very least causing whiplash. It's not good practice to have older children in the front, even with a booster seat, but I don't think the risks from the airbag are the same.


  • #6
    Zube
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,502 ✭✭✭Zube


    Thoie wrote: »
    I just thought he was a moron

    This guy is, indeed, just thick.

    There is an issue with babies in rear facing seats in the back seat, but it's not such a problem in Ireland as in, for example, America. Many babies over there every year die when distracted parents forget they are there and park in the sun. A parent's worst nightmare.

    This article about it is long, but very interesting.


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  • #7
    milltown
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,618 ✭✭✭milltown


    alias no.9 wrote: »
    The bigger risk is with smaller babys in rear facing seats because an aribag will drive the rear facing seat into the seatback, potentially crushing the baby or at the very least causing whiplash. It's not good practice to have older children in the front, even with a booster seat, but I don't think the risks from the airbag are the same.

    That's what I thought too. Rear facing baby seats in the front are a big no-no for the reasons given above. I thought the point of booster seats for older kids was to bring them up to the height that a car's safety systems are designed to work at i.e. seatbelts and airbags.

    5 is a bit young for a front seat though IMO. My 5 year old goes in the back all the time with his 10 month old brother, regardless of how short the trip is. The one time he sat in the front was driving from a holiday home on hotel grounds to hotel reception. Maybe 200 yards all within the hotel grounds, and he was a bit apprehensive about it himself!


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