New child car seats legislation

Why can't lower seat belts be fitted in cars to accommodate children? Unless I am missing an obvious reason why this is not an option to buying so many age/weight/height related specific child seats.

I do find it ridiculous that these safety measures which are deemed so important are not required in minibuses, coaches or taxis.

We used to have an ancient sit-up-and-beg Ford, with narrow tyres, trafficators and doors that opened the opposite way to modern cars. And the windscreen wipers worked off the engine, so you could not use them when going up a steep hill. No heating of course. Or seat belts.

I remember taking DD1 as a tiny baby on a snowy journey to visit relatives and she was on the back seat, in her unrestrained carrycot, cocooned in blankets to stop her freezing - especially when we were going uphill and I had to have the window open to wipe the windscreen manually from the passenger seat. Ah....those were the days!

There was some confusion in the new rules, so they've been updated and reissued today.

https://www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules

My daughter doesn't drive and lives alone, but we often ferry her about, so have had to buy a car seat for the impending baby!

Pompa I often think the same. It horrifies me now that when my sister and her husband used to stay with us in the summer, we would drive to the beach in their car - a big estate type hatchback - with the four adults in the front and back seats and all four children just loose in the very back. They would have been anything between 6 and 10 years old. I don't even want to think about the consequences of a rear end collision. We just never thought about it then. The chances we took

When my grandson had his first outing in the car at one month, his folks drove for two hours to her parents only to discover when they arrived that whilst the seat had been strapped in, the baby had not. Luckily the seat provided a very snug fit.

I agree pompa, I was shocked at all the rigmarole around car seats when DGS was born - not that I'm decrying it, obviously it's imperative that babies and children are transported safely, but I do shudder at the cost nowadays.

DS doesn't have a car so DGS' car seat gets very little use; probably first one used a dozen times before he grew out of it and they had to buy another!

Pompa

Same here pompa

I wonder how our arrangement in the 70's would be viewed ? We had the carry cot on the back seat with a cat net over it, all held in place with elastic straps.
When I look at all the rules and regs plus do's/don'ts of child care today, I wonder how our children survived.

Thanks for that glass .

Thanks. We were about to get a booster seat for DGD2 as she seems too tall for our present seat. I fear she's still too light - just tall and skinny!