# Why aren't child car seat alarms mandatory? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297 "2014-07-03T20:05:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/63 "2015-08-21T18:37:47Z")
But you’d have to also factor in the forward/rear facing factor, which is the other thing keeping kids in the back seat (that you cannot rear face with an airbag.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/64 "2015-08-21T18:48:00Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > But you’d have to also factor in the forward/rear facing factor, which is the other thing keeping kids in the back seat (that you cannot rear face with an airbag.) Sure. More data would help. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/65 "2015-08-21T22:03:18Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > …What I am saying is that (other than air bags make backward facing car seats dangerous) is that I think they have ignored the fact the putting the kid in the back seat makes the mother constantly turn around to pay attention to a fussy child. > … That is not a fact, it’s just your (somewhat sexist) assertion. Every _parent_ realizes pretty quick that there’s not much you can do when the baby is crying in the back seat. Another poster also pointed out that you might actually be more distracted having the baby in front since you can actually interact with it there. At least in back you know there’s nothing you can do about so you just wait for a stop light or pull over. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/66 "2015-08-21T22:52:46Z")
> [@SmellMyWort](#): > > That is not a fact, it’s just your (somewhat sexist) assertion. If you had bothered to read my posts, you’d see I was basing this on several rides with a Mom. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/67 "2015-08-21T23:44:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > If you had bothered to read my posts, you’d see I was basing this on several rides with a Mom. Sounds like there’s no need for more studies then, you’ve already collected sufficient data. :rolleyes: Unless…maybe it wasn’t because she’s a _mom_, but because she’s a _woman_. I mean, you know how women are just plain bad drivers and distracted by anything, amirite? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/68 "2015-08-22T03:08:08Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Sounds like there’s no need for more studies then, you’ve already collected sufficient data. :rolleyes: > > Unless…maybe it wasn’t because she’s a _mom_, but because she’s a _woman_. I mean, you know how women are just plain bad drivers and distracted by anything, amirite? Umm, no, I have said several times that what we need are more studies. Umm, maybe because she _was_ distracted? Women are generally better drivers than men, as they get Road Rage less often. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/69 "2015-08-22T03:29:45Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Since I don’t see it with a quick search, I’ll add a method for not forgetting that I found in an article since this thread ended last year. It said to put your left shoe in the back seat, on the floor, when you put the baby in the carrier. Other tag-out systems might be overlooked in a rush, but you’re going to notice that you only have one shoe on. Obviously not written by a parent who lives in Minnesota (or anywhere else it snows, slushes, freezing rains or is just bitter cold for several months a year) and is dealing with daycare parking lots in January. My shoes sort of needed to stay on my feet six months a year in order not to freeze when taking my kid out of the seat. (Nor, do I imagine, does the writer live in Phoenix or another city with two hundred degree pavement in the Summer). My purse still goes in the back seat though, and my kids are sixteen and seventeen now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/70 "2015-08-22T03:43:41Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > If you had bothered to read my posts, you’d see I was basing this on several rides with a Mom. Well that is exhausting research I must say. Published and peer reviewed I assume? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/71 "2015-08-22T03:57:57Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Well that is exhausting research I must say. Published and peer reviewed I assume? No, which is why \*I think they need further studies. \* ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/72 "2015-08-22T04:42:34Z")
You said it was a fact. I suggested earlier that you’re on safe ground saying more study is needed. It’s when you start proclaiming facts not in evidence that you run into issues. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/73 "2015-08-22T04:47:25Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Sounds like there’s no need for more studies then, you’ve already collected sufficient data. :rolleyes: > > Unless…maybe it wasn’t because she’s a _mom_, but because she’s a _woman_. I mean, you know how women are just plain bad drivers and distracted by anything, amirite? Absolutely. If you really want to kill people, make the child seats SHINY. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/74 "2015-08-22T04:56:27Z")
Several more kids have died since I originally posted this OP. A judge’s baby died in Hot Springs AR because the parent forgot it was in the car. The pressure pad sensor system I suggested has already been done in other applications. Here’s a chair pad for $36 that sounds an alarm if a elderly patient stands up out of their chair. Letting caregivers know before the person falls and injuries themselves. $36 plus the cost of the alarm to protect a senior from injury. [http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/lumex-fast-alert-pressure-sensor-chair-pad-only/ID=prod6255422-product?ext=gooHome\_Health\_Care\_Solutions\_PLA\_Patient\_Alarm\_prod6255422\_pla&adtype=pla&kpid=sku6217719&sst=61bd491f-1a22-423e-940f-2b901c732764&kpid=sku6217719](http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/lumex-fast-alert-pressure-sensor-chair-pad-only/ID=prod6255422-product?ext=gooHome_Health_Care_Solutions_PLA_Patient_Alarm_prod6255422_pla&adtype=pla&kpid=sku6217719&sst=61bd491f-1a22-423e-940f-2b901c732764&kpid=sku6217719) Yet we can’t modify something like this to save a baby? No one cares enough to change the logic circuit? Instead of alarming when pressure is released, it would alarm when the car door opened and there was 10 lbs or more pressure on the pad. Simple as pie. Is my idea absolutely foolproof? Probably not. But it would still save a bunch of lives cheaply. It’s a lot better than nothing and just hoping a busy mom or dad remembers the baby sitting backwards in the rear seat of the car. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/75 "2015-08-22T08:22:40Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > _Sigh._ I am not in any way disagreeing that many people _say_ it’s dangerous to have a kid in the front seat, or that it may be illegal, or that air bags make backward facing car seats dangerous. You are not reading my posts carefully. > > What I am saying is that (other than air bags make backward facing car seats dangerous) is that I think they have ignored the fact the putting the kid in the back seat makes the mother constantly turn around to pay attention to a fussy child. \*\* IN CASE OF A ACCIDENT the back seat is certainly safer\*\*- but I think that putting the kid in the back increases the chance of a accident (_and greatly increases the chance that a baby will be accidentally left in the car, to die_) so much that putting the kid in the back seat does not and has not reduced child fatalities. The stats show as much.\*\* Putting kids in the back seat has not reduced child fatalities. \*\* Why is this, if it so much safer? Well, some say it due to the fact that most seats are improperly used. Maybe. I have a alternate proposal. > Now, I have not seen anything that shows that a child in a front-facing seat is in any particular danger from a front airbag. The only additional danger is the fact that “riding shotgun” is a more dangerous place to be - for anyone- IN THE CASE OF A ACCIDENT . > > But just like it was shown that big SUVs are not actually safer than family sedans (yes, in certain types of crashes, the bigger the vehicle the better. But large SUV’s had a much higher accident rate -rollovers-than family sedans, and thus the tiny amount of added safety in certain uncommon crashes was more than offset by the higher accident rate)\* it may well be that the small amount of extra safety of putting the kiddo in the backseat is offset by a higher accident rate and by the dangers of accidentally leaving the kid in the vehicle. \* > > What is needed is a study to see if they are higher accident rates and to see if the _extra safety by the back seat_ is offset by the dangers of leaving the kid in the car accidentally. I think you’re right. I have no idea why you’re getting so much resistance. I saw a study that said essentially, “before laws mandating children be in the back seat, there were about 30 MORE deaths per year from children being in the front seat than in crashes that would’ve been survivable had they been in the back. However, there are now about 42 MORE deaths from hyperthermia/hypothermia from being left in the car that would have never happened, presumably, if the children had been in the front.” Basically, the study said it’s a wash (so maybe the numbers were more like 36 and 42). I’m not sure the source or methodology, but it seems reasonable to me because for a traffic crash to have fatalities, it’s got to be pretty horrific, so it stands to reason that it isn’t usually going to make much difference if you’re shotgun or in the back seat. Aren’t the current back seat laws mostly from the emotional reaction Americans had to a few well-publicized baby decapitations from airbags when seated in rear-facing baby seats when airbags deployed in low speed crashes? I remember my grandmother freaking out over a story of a baby’s head going right out the window in a parking lot fender-bender, around the mid-1980’s. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297/76 "2015-08-24T04:03:12Z")
Why would a camera staring at the rear facing car seat with a dash mount monitor not work? Watch the baby sleep drool or fuss when it is there and a quick reminder to take it with. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-child-car-seat-alarms-mandatory/692297.md?page=3)