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What age can you start driving with a youngster in the front seat without disabling the airbag? Our daughter is 14 months old and is in a forward-facing child seat...she sits in thef ront of my car with the airbag disabled but I thought this was just for rear-facing airbags (but can't find anything to verify this) - my thinking is the forward-facing seat has a 3-point harness and keeps her well inside the seat - the seat is then strapped to the main seat with the seatbelt - if I was to brake hard or stop very suddenly then the seatbelt would tension and she wouldn't move outwith the straps...so if an airbag did go off it would be likely to help cushion any forward motion (assuming she moves forward enough to reach the airbag - the front seat is set right back).
I'm not fussed about disabling the airbag but wanting to know for my own piece of mind as I really don't know when you stop switching the airbag off. I'm kind of thinking without it on, it isn't quite as safe but as she sits in her own seat and is secured in that and then sat in the main car seat and is secured in that and sits right back, I'm not sure it would do anything to benefit and that this is all just in my head...But I thought I'd ask anyway!
Dammit, this was meant to be in the Chat forum - sorry!
Hi,
A few years ago when I worked in a well-known large car/bike superstore chain, I had a lot of training on fitting and advising parents on child seats. (I worked on the cycle dept. but all the child seats were moved upstairs to our bit of the store so we had no choice.) The advice given was to never have children under about 11-12 years old in the front of the car unless there was no choice (i.e. other children in seats in the back).
The airbag disabling switch is just that - a very small electrical contact that says yes or no. Even when in the "off" position, in a crash the airbag could still go off. Airbags for a small child are much more likely to seriously injure them (or worse) then a head on collision at low speed. Those things come out pretty quickly and if you see the damage they can do to adults you'll understand what I mean.
Put the little one in the back. They're much safer there and you are less likely to be distracted by them because they won't be sat next to you. It's just safer for everyone.
Of course, if (like many others on this forum) you think that this large car/bike store chain is a pile of poo then please ignore my advice. But the training was given by some chap from a car safety agency.
Don't know which car/bike chain you are on about but I'm after your opinion on the airbags thing...not whether or not I think the company you worked for was any good or not.
Thanks for the advice...all makes sense and is a fair point...I'll stick her in the back and she can just get used to seeing the back of a seat for a good few years!
