Booster seat law evokes memories of road rash

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By Amelia Robinson 5:24 PM Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I learned a very valuable life lesson the second time the forces of nature hurled me from my mother’s olive green station wagon and spun me faster than a Sit and Spin onto the asphalt covering a very busy Cleveland roadway.

If you play with car locks — tugging them up and pushing them down, up and down, up and down — the door just might open and spit you out on the asphalt.

I haven’t played with a car’s locks since that day nearly three decades ago and I haven’t fallen out of any big Buick station wagons.

What didn’t kill me definitely made me less stupid.

Automotive safety laws and standards have come a long way since the early 80s when I fell out of the car and scraped up my bum. The seat belts in my mom’s car were metal and, for all intents and purposes, optional.

These days, everyone is a lot safer — there are air bags, brakes that actually brake, and seat belts that don’t burn your legs after baking in the hot sun.

That said, safety is awfully annoying. Take the new super-nerdo Ohio Booster Seat Law.

If it weren’t enough that kids under a certain height can’t sit in the front seats of cars or play dodgeball, now most will have to stay in a car seat until they are 8 years old or 4 feet 9 inches or taller.

Officials says this is all for a good reason. Children ages 4 to 8 are too small to be protected adequately by the car’s seat belt system designed by adults.

I say yeah, good deal, but jeez. How lame for the kid. What 8-year-old wants to be in a little kid booster seat?

Another right of passage of childhood, abandoning your car seat, bites the dust.

Sure, it is all in the best interest of safety. But it seems an overwhelming amount of stuff is for the sake of safety. Playgrounds are cushioned because someone might scrape their knees. Kids can’t jump on trampolines or ride their bikes without 38 pounds of safety equipment.

The message is clear: running, jumping and hanging upside down from things might seem like a lot of fun, but it’s dangerous. Fun should be avoided at all cost.

There is no need to grow up and learn valuable lessons when society will simply encase your body in bubble wrap and inject you with safety, safety and safety.

Yes, it is best to sit on the sofa with the newest, bloodiest Xbox game. Don’t bother moving anything south or north of your elbow. Eat Snickers and Little Debbie snack cakes. Drink containers of Monster and Mountain Dew.

Let your avatar learn to play guitar or steal taxis in the virtual world.

In my day, we stole our own taxi cabs, thank you very much. We also, for what it’s worth, fell out of our mothers’ station wagons. Thankfully some of us survived.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2384 or arobinson@Dayton DailyNews.com.

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Well, the reason I had to write in 'text speak' is because I had too much to say and not enough characters to say it with since there is a 500 character limit on this site. Pay attention people.

fyrmom98
11:09 AM, 10/17/2009

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Have our lives become so rushed that we cannot even take the time to type a whole word?For those of you who feel the need to abbreviate everything please slow down because it is for the most part ,haste that makes the need for us to have to use these seats anyway.I also have to wonder if the people who type all these abbreviations are members of the ever growing numbers of Americans who are just too lazy to use proper English or did not learn it.

grandoug
7:10 AM, 10/17/2009

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I was just checking up on child restraint laws out of curiousity. Booster seat really? what about the school bus? the 5 year old doesn't have a special booster seat there? Am I even allowed to put kids in the car anymore? funny article. I especially love the end.

travis in columbus
10:32 AM, 10/16/2009

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I am pretty sure the article was written "tongue in cheek" but I understand what the reporter is trying to say. We need to be in control of our lives and safety, we don't need the government telling us how to do it. If we think the kids need to be in the booster longer, then that should be our decision. It should not be the business of the government.

What is really annoying though are adults that type like they are teenagers and express their thoughts in text speak.

Peggy
10:27 AM, 10/15/2009

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while I'm on my soap box I find this article 2 b extremely irresponsible. Not only r u defeating the purpose the work CPST's r working diligently 2 achieve, but u make it sound like our kids don't need this, when u have no statistics in ur article 2 explain y the seats r needed. if a kid doesn't know any different, there's no such 'right of passage'. I understand u r a 'smart mouth' type of article, but find something less serious to tyraid about. this's 2 important an issue 2 b made lite of.

fyrmom98
4:09 PM, 10/14/2009

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