The killer in the back seat....
Discussion
Sorry for the melodramatic title...
I'm still amazed by the amounts of drivers who are happy to travel with unrestrained passengers in the back seat.
Today I stopped and issued tickets to a dozen such people. Kids unrestrained in the back, often leaning in between the front seats. Adults unrestrained and doing the same.
Apart from the fact the passengers are highly likely to be either seriously injured or killed in an accident, they are also likely to take the driver the same route as the collide with them with between 30-60 times their bodyweight in force..
Street
I'm still amazed by the amounts of drivers who are happy to travel with unrestrained passengers in the back seat.
Today I stopped and issued tickets to a dozen such people. Kids unrestrained in the back, often leaning in between the front seats. Adults unrestrained and doing the same.
Apart from the fact the passengers are highly likely to be either seriously injured or killed in an accident, they are also likely to take the driver the same route as the collide with them with between 30-60 times their bodyweight in force..
Street
There was an advert about this a while back on TV, it was a fanily in a car with the woman driver looking in her rear view mirror a lot at a white van with the voiceover saying 'Most victims know their killer', etc. The woman then crashes into something and dies with the kid (about 16 I think) in the back crying as he had just killed is mum.
Quite a memorable and thought provoking advert, much better than the locked up wheels and Debbie! ones we have on now.
Quite a memorable and thought provoking advert, much better than the locked up wheels and Debbie! ones we have on now.
So why the bloody hell does the message not reach you then....? Streetcop said:
False...In some cases, a child on the knee becomes a 'dangerous load'
Street
That's what I thought, thanks.
What are the rules re children...ages, front/back seats, belts, child seats, booster cushions, driver liability to prosecution, etc?
I heard a whisper the Highway Code is not up to date.
jmorgan said:
Same goes for that bag of tools I understand. Along with other unrestrained heavy items. Can't remember the program but it was several years ago (another motering one did a test recently) but a tool kit on the rear parcel shelf or shopping bags become rather nasty projectiles.
The classic was the guy with a sheet of glass perched across his rear parcel shelf....
ran in the back of someone and, ah! la guillotine!
Oh and another one that happened local to me some years back...
Remember those Bedford bread vans with sliding doors?
A local bakery van driver was going over a canal bridge next to a (my local) pub; there's a give way on the other side of the bridge... as he went over the bridge he saw a mate coming out of the pub and leaned out (looking back) to shout something to his mate... hit the back of a stationary car... door slides shut, and guess what he loses? Yep, his head!
Remember those Bedford bread vans with sliding doors?
A local bakery van driver was going over a canal bridge next to a (my local) pub; there's a give way on the other side of the bridge... as he went over the bridge he saw a mate coming out of the pub and leaned out (looking back) to shout something to his mate... hit the back of a stationary car... door slides shut, and guess what he loses? Yep, his head!
Streetcop said:
Never have anything on the parcel shelf...umbrellas...first aid kits...whatever....
They turn into missiles in the event of a collision..
I've attended accidents where empty coke cans have been crushed...cassetted smashed to pieces etc
Street
Dead right Gary, but don't you just see the prats everywhere?
I saw a car doing 75 mph on a motorway (estimated speed, I guess they were doing abot 35 - 40 mph less than me
) a few weeks ago, with a small dog (sausage) standing on the parcel shelf like an armed exocet missile! 
instructor said:
Same goes for that bag of tools I understand. Along with other unrestrained heavy items. Can't remember the program but it was several years ago (another motering one did a test recently) but a tool kit on the rear parcel shelf or shopping bags become rather nasty projectiles.
The classic was the guy with a sheet of glass perched across his rear parcel shelf....
ran in the back of someone and, ah! la guillotine!
I bet that was a pane in the neck.
, her, his three kids and my two kids. My kids were the ones not belted in. I went absolutely balistic at her. I wish there was a BiB around at the time to procecute the f**ker. Rules regarding children:
Definition of a child: a child is a person under 14 years of age. A small child means a child under 12 years and under 150cms in height, and a large child means a child who is not a small child.
It is an offence for the driver of a motor vehicle to which rear seat belts are fixed, not to ensure that any child is belted in.
There is an excemption when a seatbelt is deemed not avaliable.
And adult belt is regarded as being suitable for a child aged three or more even if no booster seat is used..
A child under three is not required to wear a seatbelt if no suitable child restraints are avaliable.
If no belt is avaliable in the rear of the vehicle but a suitable seat is avaliable in the front then the child must be seated in the front and use that avaliable seat belt.
Then it gets a bit deep when small child and larcg child rules come into play when using front seat belts.
HTH
Gareth
Definition of a child: a child is a person under 14 years of age. A small child means a child under 12 years and under 150cms in height, and a large child means a child who is not a small child.
It is an offence for the driver of a motor vehicle to which rear seat belts are fixed, not to ensure that any child is belted in.
There is an excemption when a seatbelt is deemed not avaliable.
And adult belt is regarded as being suitable for a child aged three or more even if no booster seat is used..
A child under three is not required to wear a seatbelt if no suitable child restraints are avaliable.
If no belt is avaliable in the rear of the vehicle but a suitable seat is avaliable in the front then the child must be seated in the front and use that avaliable seat belt.
Then it gets a bit deep when small child and larcg child rules come into play when using front seat belts.
HTH
Gareth
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