An example of the new child seat law

To get the family to church this morning I had to make two trips.

My children, who are currently five, have always used appropriate car seats for the vast majority of journeys and all long or motorway journeys. However, there are occasionally circumstances when for short journeys we could fit people in better without them.

This morning was a case in point. My children's grandparents are with us, so we needed to fit four adults and two small children in the car. It is just possible to fit them into my car without excessive crowding, and so that everyone is wearing a seatbelt (and avoiding dangerous practices like having a child on an adult's lap with the same seatbelt round them both.) The journey is five minutes by car, none of it above 20 mph, and it was a grey, wet morning.

However, it is not possible to fit six people in the car appropriately when the children are in car seats. I ended up making two journeys to the church: after the service we had a "modal shift" and one party walked back home.

The legislation which made this necessary is not wholly without merit, but I can't help thinking that applying it in all cases is rigid and overzealous.

There is an exception to the legislation for emergencies but I did not really want to claim that for the trip to church.

I'd be interested to know what readers of this blog feel about the child seat legislation: please feel free to post a comment.

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