I take my 18 month old 3 miles to his sitter. The drive is quite simple- 2.5 miles of it is either 25 MPG in my neighborhood and 25/35 MPG on a back country road. Less than half a mile is on a busier (not busy) 45 MPH road.
Would I be crazy to put a forward facing seat in the Miata for this short trip? I take my 5YO in her booster seat around town every so often, but I'm hesistant to put the lil guy into the Miata.
Thanks for the thoughts....
I'm not sure how much speed (and sudden stop) it takes to deploy the airbag, but that would be my main concern, no matter which way the car seat faces. I'm not aware of any way to deactivate the passenger airbag on the NA, but that's what you'd have to do.
Nope I did it all the time, even the carrier when she was still a little baby.
Brad
I have a 3 year old that rides around with me in her booster. She loves the Miata and insists on riding in it eventhough we have a perfectly good BMW sitting in the garage. As a result, I get to drive the Miata a lot. HOWEVER....it comes down to the minimum rec. age for a forward facing seat. I was thinking it was 2 years but I can't remember for sure. I would not be too worried about using the Miata (assuming you have no passenger airbag....or that you can turn it off if you do) BUT I would be worried about facing forward at 18mo. if the rec. age is 2 years. I guess it boils down to....quot;is it really worth the riskquot;?????
I believe in Florida, and possibly the whole USA, that children that young cannot ride in the front seat. Therefore, no rides in a Miata.
Regardless of the short trip, remember that most accidents happen 1/2 miles from your own home.
I feel you are right to be concerned.
Virginia's Child Passenger Safety Laws
VIRGINIA'S CHILD RESTRAINT DEVICE LAW
(Code of Virginia Article 13 - Section 46.2)
The major requirements of Virginia's Child Safety Seat Law:
Effective July 1, 2007: Child restraint devices are required for children through the age of seven (until 8th birthday). Safety seats must be properly used and approved by Department of Transportation standards.
Effective July 1, 2007: Rear-facing child restraint devices must be placed in the back seat of a vehicle. In the event the vehicle does not have a back seat, the child restraint device may be placed in the front passenger seat only if the vehicle is either not equipped with a passenger side airbag or the passenger side airbag has been deactivated.
Effective July 1, 2007: Children can no longer ride unrestrained in the rear cargo area of vehicles.
Most accident occur within 5 miles of one's home. Deactivate the airbag, it isn't worth the risk.
I gutted my airbags so they couldnt blow and did it when they were in a front facing seat.All three of them have ridden in the Miata.
-G-
I wouldn't hesitate to do it with the airbag deactivated. Otherwise, probably not. My Dad drove me around in his convertible Caddy, standing up in the front seat. I don't think we ever heard of a car seat.
Yep, only do it if you can deactivate the airbag somehow.
I drove my li'l nephew all over the place in a rear-facing seat. Don't recall just how old he was before turning around, but he could make pretty good engine growling sounds by then. My '90 has no passenger airbag, and I'd think that would be the main issue with any small person facing it. Turned backward, I doubt there'd be a big danger. Of course, laws probably contradict me. I used to like riding my tricycle in the back of Dad's pickup as we went down the road -- caught some wicked air sometimes.
}}}}
Originally Posted by conga mike
I believe in Florida, and possibly the whole USA, that children that young cannot ride in the front seat. Therefore, no rides in a Miata.
Regardless of the short trip, remember that most accidents happen 1/2 miles from your own home.
I feel you are right to be concerned.
I don't believe that. Many Pickups still only have front seats. With rear facing seats you need to deactivate the airbag but that should be about it.
Brad
Does the NA even have a pax airbag? Mine doesn't seem to.
I do appologuise. Florida law only states that children under the age of three must be restrained in an approved child seat. There is no mention of front seat or back seat. Child restraint laws are governed by each state. I spoke before I looked it up.
general...etaswitch.html
Originally Posted by TMetzinger
Does the NA even have a pax airbag? Mine doesn't seem to.
I think they added it in 94
keg97 lists three autos, a '94 laguna blue Miata (passanger airbag) a '08 Infinity QX56 (my choice of his listings as transportation for a child) and an '04 Acura TSX.
I think this thread is about how he feels uncomfortable driving a young child in his Miata. I think his caution is valid. Everytime I stare at the lug nuts on a 18 wheeler at a stop light I am reminded just how tiny our beloved Miata's really are. It's my choice to take that risk. Children have to rely on our good judgement to make the best choice.
Your drive sounds fairly tame and it is a short distance.
One other thing to consider is does your Miata have ratcheting seat belts? My 1990 doesn't, and I'm not sure when/if Mazda ever put them into the Miata. If the seat belts don't ratchet then you won't be able to safely install a toddler's car seat. Basically the seat belt could loosen during any crash if the ratchet isn't engaged. A booster seat is a whole other story - by that point the child is big enough to quot;activatequot; the seat belt themselves, and the main reason for the booster is so the belt doesn't cross the neck and they're raised so it falls across their shoulder.
Since my belts wouldn't ratchet, I've had to tell my kids to wait until they're in boosters for rides in the Miata.
from the FSHP website;
Florida state law requires children under age 5 to be protected with an approved and properly used child restraint device. For children under 3, Florida law requires that they be in a separate car seat or a car seat that is integrated into the vehicle. For children ages 4 and 5, a separate car seat, integrated car seat or seat belt may be used.
Originally Posted by jhupka
Your drive sounds fairly tame and it is a short distance.
One other thing to consider is does your Miata have ratcheting seat belts? My 1990 doesn't, and I'm not sure when/if Mazda ever put them into the Miata. If the seat belts don't ratchet then you won't be able to safely install a toddler's car seat. Basically the seat belt could loosen during any crash if the ratchet isn't engaged. A booster seat is a whole other story - by that point the child is big enough to quot;activatequot; the seat belt themselves, and the main reason for the booster is so the belt doesn't cross the neck and they're raised so it falls across their shoulder.
Since my belts wouldn't ratchet, I've had to tell my kids to wait until they're in boosters for rides in the Miata.
Not true at all. If you look under the seats you will see a metal clip. It is a rectangle and has a opening on both long ends with a bar in the middle. That is to feed your seatbelt in to lock it. f/332/936/1....clips.500.jpg lockingclips.htm
The specific instructions should be with your specific seat also under it.
Brad
My thought is that Miata,s are pretty twitchy and depending on the alignment,they can easily follow contours in the road. Take your eyes off the view through the windscreen for half a second and you literally could be anywhere on the road. The attention that this car demands doesn,t leave a window to tend a small child or toddler travelling with you.
Well, a few facts on infants, crash injury, and air bags ...
An 18 mo. old needs the neck protection of a rear facing child seat even in a 5pmh frontal crash. It should be in the back seat.
If the seat is positioned forward, the car stops in a crash, but the infant keeps going. The straps then stop the infants torso, but the head keeps going. The neck attempts to restrain the forward motion of the head (still large in proportion to the rest of the body at that age), with resulting hyperflexion and stretching of the spinal cord. The spinal cord does not like to be stretched. Resulting trauma starts at the moment of injury, and then continues as the body rushes ATP to the area in an overzealous attempt to provide energy to enable the healing process for the injured nerve tissue. The overload of ATP results in more injury to remaining healthy tissue hours after the initial insult. The very real risk is permanent paralysis.
If placed in a front seat facing forward toward an air bag, the explosive deployment of the air bag adds to the above problem and simply places additional torsional stress on the spinal cord as the air bag impacts the infants head at full adult energy discharge.
Putting the seat in the car in front of an air bag and facing rearward puts the back of the seat much closer to the air bag than an individual sitting in the regular seat. The infant seat, and then the infant, will get the full effects of the air bag's explosive deployment. The infant seat and the infant will get violently thrown to the back of the regular seat by the deploying air bag. See the scenario above for a description of resulting spinal cord injury.
Serious risk occurs both ways if the infant seat is positioned in front of an air bag. It is best positioned facing rearward in the back seat of a vehicle. Or, it may be positioned facing rearward in a front seat *if* the air bag is disabled. Know, however, that the front passenger seat of a vehicle is the most dangerous passenger seat in terms of injury.
I can provide trauma and emergency medicine references if you're interested.
Glenn (former EMT and critical care RN)
Originally Posted by ggungel
Well, a few facts on infants, crash injury, and air bags ...
An 18 mo. old needs the neck protection of a rear facing child seat even in a 5pmh frontal crash. It should be in the back seat.
If the seat is positioned forward, the car stops in a crash, but the infant keeps going. The straps then stop the infants torso, but the head keeps going. The neck attempts to restrain the forward motion of the head (still large in proportion to the rest of the body at that age), with resulting hyperflexion and stretching of the spinal cord.
That makes a lot of sense...but only for a front-end impact. What happens with a child properly seated in a rear facing seat and a rear-end impact? Now, the child's head would go back with the torso restrained. Or, are child seats designed to handle that? I don't have any kids yet, so I am curious more than anything else...
starting in 94, yes (in the US at least)
Originally Posted by TMetzinger
Does the NA even have a pax airbag? Mine doesn't seem to.
Originally Posted by nitin24
That makes a lot of sense...but only for a front-end impact. What happens with a child properly seated in a rear facing seat and a rear-end impact? Now, the child's head would go back with the torso restrained. Or, are child seats designed to handle that? I don't have any kids yet, so I am curious more than anything else...
Nope, the seats don't handle that. Probably have to have a head restraint to do that. Sadly, its an odds game. Front end impacts are more common that rear (front ends hit other front ends, other cars' sides, other cars back ends, and/or stationary objects .. back ends generally are involved in only 1/4th of those type of collisions, though statistically, I think it's a bit higher as a percentage of all types). So, positioned in the back seat facing rearward, the seat protects against the most likely type of injury causing collisions, which are front and side impacts.
Of course, freak accidents can always happen, and usually do sometime. Both extremely violent rollovers and great disparities in mass or speed also tend to toss out the rule book ... as can something as simple as not properly applying the straps in an infant seat, or positioning the lap or shoulder belt incorrectly on a child or adult. (Positioned too high, like above the pelvis bones, a lap belt in a violent stop like a crash can cause spinal hyperflexion and even paralysis. Not properly strapped in, infants and children can become little missiles, and whatever they hit tends to win.)
Sorry, folks, this stuff can get pretty depressing. Just use safety devices like belts and seats as designed and intended, and be careful out there. |
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