December 19, 2015

How the puffy coat — on or off — can kill your kid.

The straps in the car seat are not secure enough if the child is wearing a "puffy" coat — crash test dummies fly out of their seats — but if you take the coat off before strapping him in, you could get in a car accident that puts you in a position where you don't help him, and no one else comes along soon enough, and he freezes to death.

31 comments:

Bob Boyd said...

Yet another use for Duct Tape.

Rae said...

It's almost like, past a certain point, not all risks can be planned for and mitigated.

MadisonMan said...

People in DC where the rules are "suggested" have no concept of what goes on in the rest of the country.

Fernandinande said...

tiny dummies in puffy coats

Stupid dummies.

tim maguire said...

The article could have used a picture of a puffy coat vs. a non-puffy coat so we'd know what they're talking about. And an example of a child getting injured or killed because of a puffy coat. That would have helped too--an actual example.

Deirdre Mundy said...

And this is why we buy our kids coats from LL Bean and Lands End--- they're warm down to -40 degrees, but as thin as a light jacket.

(Also, the zippers last forever, so they hand down multiple times. We're on #6 with one, and it's still going strong...)

Psota said...

So put a sweater on the kid!

Tari said...

Yet another reason to live in a warmer climate. Think of the children!

Gahrie said...

A meteor could fall out of the sky and crush you to death....

gspencer said...

And, after strapping the kid in, a blanket or the puffy coat itself could be placed over the kid's body, with some sort of holding device in place to keep the blanket from being dislodged should the car overturn.

So many problems, so many issues. We can't think of everything. This is why we need big and bigger government. All hail, Caesar. All hail"

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...


How did we ever win WWII?

SweatBee said...

When I was a kid, we had blankets in the car because it took so long for the heat to reach the back in winter.

At any rate, there are a couple of solutions to the car seat problem. One is to buckle the child in and then put the coat on backwards over the straps. The other is to buy "packable" coats, buckle the kid in without the coat and leave the straps where they are instead of loostening them to unbuckle. Then when the child gets in the seat with the coat on, refasten the straps over the coat in the correct tightened positon.

Michael said...

Millions of men and women over the age of 65 grew up never wearing seat belts. Our children lolled around in the back. Sometimes in the far back of station wagons where they could make faces at the cars behind us. We smoked in the cars with the children in the back. If we had pick up trucks we let the kids slide around in the truck bed with the dogs. The kids learned how to hold on when he went on rough roads. Those very same children chose up sides to play ball and picked the worst kids last.

Ipso Fatso said...

I wonder if Puffy Combs wears puffy coats?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

It seems to me the SLICKNESS of the coat probably has as much, or more, to do with flying out as the PUFFINESS. Anyway, the dilemma is easily solved: Unzip the coat first, then buckle in the kid, then zip the coat over the straps.

Michael K said...

How in the world did I and my five children survive without safety belts and car seats? I drove from California to Boston in 1964 with my 6 month old son in a collapsable crib wedged in the middle seat of a VW van.

The Horror !

robinintn said...

I guess this means our childhood mode of transport in the back well of the convertible Alpha Romeo, or up on the back edge in good weather, while my father chain-smoked luckies and flicked the ash our way, would be frowned upon by these nannies and ninnies?

JAORE said...

Puffy coated lives matter.

RMc said...

No matter what you do, you are an awful, awful parent, and should be ashamed.

ddh said...

Oh, good grief. Lord, save us from these idiots who lack common sense but insist on pestering us.

averagejoe said...

Obviously the answer is to mandate that all vehicles must be encased in down so that no child ever freezes to death because their coat had to be removed just before they crashed in an isolated inaccessible place during weather with temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

Lucien said...

Well at least I hope no one is letting a kid into their car without a helmet on and knee and elbow pads, and put some pitons in your front seat so the child can use some carabiners -- big ones to avoid the risk of choking on them -- and only negligent parents haven't been trained on belaying.

tim maguire said...

Blogger Michael K said...How in the world did I and my five children survive without safety belts and car seats? I drove from California to Boston in 1964 with my 6 month old son in a collapsable crib wedged in the middle seat of a VW van.

This is called survivorship bias. Everyone has a story about how they did this or that dangerous thing and lived to tell about it because the people who didn't live aren't around to tell about it.

Birches said...

Oh, I hate all the fear mongering that is aimed at Middle Class Mothers. A friend posted a video of the crash test footage of the dummy being thrown out of the carseat in the puffy coat. The chest harness was not positioned correctly, so the kid went flying out immediately on impact. I'd guess that would have happened, coat or no coat. I can get my kid in his carseat with his coat on without changing the straps. I compress it down while I am buckling him in. It's not rocket science; it's common sense.

John henry said...

I can write the article shorter:

---BEGIN---
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!

But global warming will save us.

Unless we drown.

We are well and truly fucked.

You might as well buy this magazine since you can't take it with you.

---END---

John henry said...

Michael K:

Yesterday I was at my sons brother in laws house with my grandaughter, soon to be 12. He has a beautifully restored 1931 Model A pickup. I said something about borrowing it but that since the front seat was only big enough for her mom and me, she would have to ride in the back.

She was mortified at the thought. I then explained how when I was her age my buddy had a Model A truck that had been in the family since new. This would have been in the late 50's. His father had give it to my buddy and we used to drive it around the farm. Being 12, we were fairly reckless.

I also explained how my father used to drive us to school in his pickup. In northern NY winters and one or 2 of us always had to ride in the back.

I've also told her how, when I was in 3rd grade, living in Falls Church at the time, my neighbor and I would ride our bikes a couple miles to the movies on a Saturday afternoon.

All of this is true, I don't think she believes much of it. To the extent that she does, she thinks I am some really badass superhero to have survived all that.

I keep telling her I was only a normal 10-12 year old kid for the time.

I'm saving the story of how one of my classmates brought an M-3 45 caliber submachine gun to class in 3rd grade. It was his fathers from WWII. The teacher, Maxine Ropshaw, didn't bat an eye. She took the gun, racked it to make sure it was unloaded, gave a little lecture on gun safety and gave it back to him. (Alexandria VA)

But today people worry about puffy coats and seatbelts.

John Henry

Freeman Hunt said...

Addition to the, "Your child is going to die, and it's going to be all your fault!" genre.

Freeman Hunt said...

This is a special case within the genre wherein no out is provided the reading parent. No matter what you do, you are going to kill your child.

Largo said...

From the article:

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests removing a child’s coat before putting them in the car, though they do not cite the risk that the coat will cause the child to slip out of the car seat. Instead, they say that coats and bulky clothing “can compress in a crash and lead to increased risk of injury.

Wouldn't such compression lead to /reduced/ risk of injury?

Largo said...

Seinfeld says: Better caught dead in a puffy coat than caught alive in a puffy shirt.

Carnifex said...

I would blame Obongo, but this sort of stupidity has to be taught for decades to instill it in any normal thinking human being.