Fred, many seat belt laws related to children have changed within the
lasts few years. Here in Colorado, starting August 1, 2004, restraints
were mandated for passenger vehicles by age and/or weight without
exception. The law now states that children younger than 6, or less than
55 inches tall, must be in a child seat/booster, and after that they
must be properly restrained with a safety belt.
My youngest son turned six in September 2004 so I could remove the
booster seat from the TR4 bench seat after a couple months. ;) I have
had a lap belt on the bench seat since I bought the car. Fred, if you're
carrying kids in the TR3 or "A" in Colorado, you'd want to install each
lap belt so that it's low and snug across a child's hips, not up over
the abdomen. For a TR4 bench this is really easy to do, don't know about
an "A", and in fact my lap belt fits kids better than the lap-only belts
in the middle backseat position in most newer cars.
In late 2004 I was pulled over with the boys on the bench seat in
Boulder, CO. The motorcycle patrolman asked "do you know why I pulled
you over?" as he approached, then answered his own question "because I
didn't know your boys were in a seat belt." I don't know that he pulled
me over *because* I was driving an old car that wouldn't have been
equipped with seat belts, but it didn't stop him. My lap belt was
sufficient, although technically I should have one for each kid rather
than one that covers the whole bench seat.
According to the Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Department of
Transportation, in 2003 in Colorado 46 child passengers under age 16
died in traffic crashes. Of the victims, 33, or 72%, were riding
completely unrestrained. That's enough for me to buckle up the boys even
though one could argue the safety variables related to my Triumph. I'll
continue to buckle them up rather than teach them to leap from the car
and run to safety in case of an impending accident. And when the weather
is bad or on Friday/Saturday evenings when other drivers are crazier,
we'll take my government-mandated Volvo.
--
Steven Newell
Littleton, CO
'62 TR4, '66 Volvo 122S wagon, '71 MB 250C, '76 MB 240D
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