Car seat in a regular cab truck...?

Question

I live in Georgia and I'm 13 weeks pregnant. I have a 2005 GMC serria it is a regular cab(no back seat). It has the "smart air bags" in the drivers side & passangers side but they turn off according to weight. According to the manuel the air bag will not be on unless their is more than 70 lbs in the seat.

I am very worried about putting my baby in the front seat of our truck, but trading it in on something else is not possible. My husband thinks that full size trucks are safer than cars and want me to drive something realible. (We talked about buying a cheap older car but he does not want me and the baby stuck on the side of the road somewhere if it breaks down)

Would it be safe to have the baby is the passenger side or middle seat in the truck? It scares me even though I remeber riding with no car seat in the front seat of my dad's truck at 3 years old. (oh how times have changed!) Sorry this is so long...

Answer 1

That truck will be safe in an accident and most likely safer than a car. Those smart airbags actually work to. My parents impala has one and if i lift my body off the seat the airbag on light turns off. Check to see if the truck has one of the indicators and you can see whether or not that airbag is actually turned off or not.

Answer 2

actually studies showed that air bags smothered babies i turned off the passager one because of my asthma the stuff in it causes a bad attack.i would personally put them on the pasenger side in off position .in the middle and if you get hit your bag will go off and might hurt the baby i hate the pros and cons i to remember being in the window in the old days laying down while going on vacation ,yes times have changed .

Answer 3

Unfortunately, your dear husband is wrong. Pickup trucks are NOT safer than regular cars, suvs, and vans. And besides that, the truck you have is not a full size truck since it has no back seat. It is a light truck, which is the least safe kind. Even in trucks with backseats, kids are not as safe in them, b/c the child has to sit right up against the rear window.The safest place for any child would be the back seat of a car.

All that said - sometimes there's just no options, right? Although, I would take your hubby on the idea of getting an older car for you to drive with the kids - can't go wrong with Honda or Toyota, no matter how old it is!  If you must put the child in the truck, you might need help. Trucks are notirously difficult to install car seats in. So going here to find a certified car seat tech to help show you how is a good idea:

http://www.seatcheck.net/

And keep in mind some seats just won't work in a truck. One very important thing to consider for as the child outgrows the infant carrier (if you get one, they aren't required, newborns can go straight into a rear facing covnertible seat) is getting a seat that can be tethered rear facing. In an accident, a rear facing seat is made to rebound up - in a car it would be hitting the back of the back seat. But in a truck, its going to hit the back glass! Two rands of seats (Britax and Sunshine Kids) allow you to use the tether for rear facing, which reduces the likelihood of your child's face smashing into the glass in an accident.

Answer 4

It very unsafe but you can use a rear facing car seat and push the seat as far back as possible but before you do that you will need to check with your local department of public safety and ask if there are any laws that forbid you to do this.....