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Filed Under Life
California Promises a Car Seat for All Ages
Posted September 4, 2007
In an effort to promote safety and security, The state of California has tightened its car seat regulations so that all children under age 25 must be secured in one. Parents in violation will be subject to fines and potential arrest. All children over 25 must reach the minimum height (5’8”) and 150 lbs to use normal safety belts.
“Childhood no longer ends with college graduation,” said representative Noreen Evans, a co-sponsor of the bill. “Children are moving back wih their parents, delaying mortgage, careers, marriage and families. With this delay in responsibilities it is only fitting that the state impose greater safety measures.”
Critics of the bill suggest that these larger car seats do not provide extra safety, and in fact increase accidents, since parents of adult children are forced to buy cars and SUV’s large enough to accommodate the adult car seats.
Most parents jump at the chance to install the adult-sized car seats, since offenders are registered with a state program and have to notify their neighbors of their violations. Money from fines will go to research and development of even larger car seats to accommodate parents, grandparents, and pets.
A small but significant loophole in the bill allows celebrities to continue to restrain their children however they want to, or not at all. Since tabloid gossip is an important part of California’s entertainment infrastructure, we’d be foolish to tell pop stars how and where they choose to seat their children.
Generation X parents are most supportive of the measure. Since they grew up without car seats, they feel most unmoored to modern life, and they hope that car seats for their adult brothers and sisters will give them a better perspective on adult life.
“It’s not enough,” said Deena Karpinsky, communications director for Strap ‘Em Up, a public safety lobbying group with generous funding from the car seat industry. “It’s a start, but our organization won’t rest until we see a car seat in every home - in the bedrooms, bathrooms, and rumpus rooms of our state.”
 
copyright 2004-2024 G. Xavier Robillard
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