Train Door Shuts 3-Year-Old Out While Dad Rides Away

It played out like my number one fear when hopping a subway with my toddler - Dad got on the train, with his three-year-old son behind him. He thought.

Instead a malfunctioning door shut the three-year-old outside on the platform, and the train pulled away with Dad frantically watching through the window. Continue reading »

Inflatable Seat Belts Soon to be Available

Despite being born and raised in Detroit, I am not what you’d call a “car person.” Give me a safe, fuel efficient car that holds all my crap and doesn’t break down every few months and I’m happy.

So when my pal Jeanne passed along an invite to a Ford parenting blogger event they were having to promote an new safety innovation, I was intrigued but not expecting to be very interested. Well, I was. The innovation — inflatable seat belts for the rear seats — was actually pretty cool, despite this dude’s funny take on it (in-car pinata!). They look and perform just like regular seat belts, except they are a lot softer and sort of padded (to incorporate the air bag). They have a heavy, odd looking buckle, which locks into place like a regular seat belt. In the event of a crash, a canister of cold gas shoots through the buckle and inflates the air bag inside the belt withing 6 milliseconds, cushioning the backseat passenger and distributing crash forces more evenly across their bodies.
Continue reading »

Gun in a School Guy Says “I Never Though About It”

There are idiots and then there’s this guy! An upstate New York man who brought a loaded weapon into a school building, prompting a lockdown, says he never even thought about it.

Really? You didn’t think a gun on school premises was sort of a bad idea? Scratch that, reverse it. Continue reading »

Booster Seats Find a New Backer - Science

An announcement from a bunch of famous number crunchers this morning almost spelled an end to the booster seat. But not so fast - also released is an announcement from a bunch of children’s health professionals who say the booster seat is saving kids.

The researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention found there’s a forty-five percent reduction in risk of injury for kids in booster seats in an accident than for kids wearing just a seatbelt. Continue reading »

Car Seats Aren’t Any Better Than Seat Belts, Authors Say

Car seats are the only truly essential piece of baby equipment — or so we’ve been told. You can’t leave the hospital with your baby without one, and in many states kids are required to be in a booster seat in the back until they are well over four feet tall.

But authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt looked at the data for their new book “SuperFreakonomics” and found out that car seats do only slightly better than plain old seat belts in protecting kids over the age of two. Continue reading »

Britney Moment: Moving the Car With the Kids

The car has to be moved just a few hundred feet, and it’s just you and the kid at home. So do you do the whole “strap them in the carseat” routine for a few seconds of rolling?

Or do you plop them in the front seat or your lap for a bit of “helping” steer? Continue reading »

Wrong Adult Takes Sick Kid Home From School

A school district misidentified a sick kid and called somebody else’s grandfather to pick the first grader up from school. So why is the school district being treated like the number one bonehead here?

The “grandfather” actually TOOK the wrong child with him. He returned five minutes later when he realized - hey, that’s not my cute little granddaughter. Continue reading »

DUI Mom Breastfeeding While Driving

Police were shocked when they pulled over an erratic driver to find the drunken 19-year-old mother was attempting to breastfeed while drive.

After almost creating a collision, the drunken mother gave chase while the police followed, assumed still breastfeeding. Oh, and she was driving without a license in an unlicensed vehicle.

Continue reading »

Tagging Kids: Safety First or Over the Line?

I’ll admit I start to get more than a little freaked out after reading a few recent kidnapping stories in California. I’ve read before that kids aren’t any less safe today than they were in the “good ol’ days” — the multitude of news sites easily available just lets us read about more crimes and believe so.

Cheapskate Dad Won’t Buy a Carseat

Ever notice the people who write to Dear Abby hail from the wussiest section of the society? We’ve just found a contender for nancy ninny of the week with this one.

A mom writes in to old Mrs. VanBuren to say she got into a car accident with her kid. The insurance company says buy a new carseat, and we’ll reimburse you. Dad says no,  it’s a waste of money. Continue reading »