Florida Car Seat Laws?

Question

I have a truck and my daughter is 9 months old. It has a very small backseat that the car seat does not fit in. Is it illegal to put the car seat in the passenger seat?

Answer 1

i think so because of the airbags!!!

Answer 2

Legal - yes, safe - not really.

There's lots of things that are legal that aren't safe. Unfortunately, a pickup truck is never as safe as a car, suv or van. If there is any other option available, use it.

If not - go here to find a certified car seat tech in your area to help you install the seat: http://www.seatcheck.net/

Yes, you can put the seat in the front, as long there is no airbag or the airbag is shut off. At 9 months old the child absolutely needs to stay rear facing. And not just for another 3 months - the 20lbs/1year rule came out in the 1980's. THIRTY years ago when our car seats were only capable of rear facing to 20lbs. Now we know better and our convertible car seats all rear face to at least 30lbs.

Turning kids forward at 20lbs/1year is an outdated practice that could cost you your child's life!

1)A forward-facing child under 2 years old is 5 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a crash than a rear-facing child of the same age.

2)A child's vertabrae do not fully fuse until 3-6 years old, before then, she is at great risk for internal decapitation. The spinal column can stretch up to 2 inches in a crash BUT the spinal cord can only stretch up to 1/4 inch before it snaps and baby is gone.

3)Current research suggests that children under the age of two years are 75 percent less likely to die or be seriously injured when they are riding rear facing.

4)In a recent article from Injury Prevention, it was found that the odds of severe injury to forward facing children age 12-23 months old was 5.32 times higher than a rear facing child. (Car Safety Seats For Children: Rear Facing For Best Protection; Injury Prevention 2007; 13:398-402.)

It works this way: when you get in an accident and run into something, the car stop suddently, but everything and everyone in the car keeps moving in the direction the car was moving when it stopped, in most accidents, this is forward. So in an accident with a child in a forward facing seat, his head, the heaviest part of the body on babies and toddlers, flies forward very forcefully and easily snaps. If that same child is in a rear facing seat, his head tries to fly forward but is supported by the back of the rear facing seat, so there is no stress put on the child's neck and spine.

Check out this photo album exclusively of rear facing kids, many of them much older than 12 months: http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum...  There isn't a single documented case of a child breaking their legs b/c they were rear facing in an accident. There are, however, lots of cases where children have been killed and seriously injured where a rear facing seat would have protected them better.

THREADS WITH TECHS CHIMING IN ABOUT CAR SEATS IN PICKUP TRUCK FRONT SEATS:

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t...

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t...

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t...

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t...

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t...

Answer 3

It depends.  The doctor said it best, let me cut and paste:

As you know, the big problem with car seats in pickup trucks is that many pickups have passenger-side air bags (all of the new ones do), and it is absolutely never safe to put a rear-facing infant seat in front of a working air bag. In a rear-facing seat, the infant's head is very close to the air bag. If the air bag deploys--which can happen even in a low-speed parking lot collision--the full force of the air bag will strike the baby's head, which can be fatal.

Rear seats are safer, in general, than front seats because they are further away from the force of the crash. But an infant or child can be reasonably safe in the front seat, when properly restrained and if there isn't a working air bag.

Once a baby is older than 12 months, and weighs more than 20 lbs, according to the official recommendations from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) it is safe for them to sit in a car seat facing forward. However, it is actually safest for a baby to remain rear-facing for as long as possible. In a crash, rear-facing is safer because the forces of the crash are spread out over the baby's entire back and the neck is fully supported against the back of the car seat.

Look on your car seat for a label that tells you the weight and height limits for a baby sitting rear-facing. Most infant seats are safe for babies up to 30 lbs. If your baby's head sticks out over the top edge of the seat, then the seat is definitely too small.

Car seats are very hard to put in correctly. I'd strongly recommend that you go to a free car-seat inspection site and let a certified child passenger safety technician check your seat. Chances are, you will learn something that will make your baby much safer in your pickup. To locate the nearest inspection site, call 1-888-DASH-2-DOT (1-888-327-4236), or go to www.nhtsa.dot.gov. Also, you can read much more about child passenger safety on our site.

— by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P.

Answer 4

I called the Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles concering this and they said that it is this legal as long as you do use a rear facing car seat and if possible push the front truck seat as far back as possible...(statute # 316.613)

Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles

1-850-617-2000

Hope that this helps.

Answer 5

YES!!! OMG WHY WOULD YOU EVEN WANT TO DO THAT? sorry caps were on but seriously thats too big of a risk.

Answer 6

Not if she is facing forward

Answer 7

as long as she is facing backwards