kids in cars

[kwsmith]

at what age are children allowed to sit in the front seat of a car?

[coggles]

Hello kwsmith, according to the NHTSA (www.nhtsa.dot.gov) all children aged 12 and under should go in the back.

[BadlyHungBoy]

Hi K - I think children of any age are allowed in the front seat of a car in the UK; but if they're under 12 months old they must be in an approved child seat, basically a rear facing one.. However, the 12 year rule does make more sense. I'm sure you know why you mustn't use a rear facing child seat on the front seat of a car with an air bag:-)

[darth vader]

I checked out http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/CPS/ and you have to read it carefully "All children aged 12 and under should go in the back. This is advisory. As far as i'm aware there are no laws regarding ages of front seat sitting people. The only legal requirement to my knowledge is that the driver and all passengers, have some form of safety restraint. A baby for example, is seated in a baby carrier (fitted to face away form the dashboard), a young child from about 12-18 months onwards in a child seat (if suitable), children from about 2-4 years in a booster seat. These are all advisory measures and vary with the size of child (mine for example outgrew his baby carrier after about 6 months). I am not sure but I think there is a minimum requirement that children under 4 not use standard seatbelts.

[darth vader]

by the way just to clarify, is this a question in the USA or UK? (having just realised the NHTSA is a USA organisation!). I was nearly right - it's 3 years old not 4 http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/law/index.htm

[coggles]

As Darth (and I) said, 'should' - I googled to get you an answer for this question and didn't realise the site wasn't a UK site, sorry. Having said that, it does give lots of useful child safety advice which I doubt would be too different to our own?