New Jersey Nanny State Mandates Car Seats for 8 Yr OIds

New Jersey Laws

[AppyPappy]

A. Not everyone has a belt adjuster.
B. Cars today aren't built like a 64 Ford. When you hit a 64 Ford, people don't fly out the windows. They look up.
C. In Virginia, the law is based on age/height/weight. I have no idea what the whole NJ law says.
D. I don't consider the nanny state to be seat belt laws. I consider it to be the government telling me I have to pay for some numbskull's hospital bill because he wasn't wearing a safety belt and got tossed into a ditch. Why is it my fault that he is an idiot? As long as people want the government to be their nanny, they will have to accept these types of laws.
E> I have no problem with parents making the decision but if they make the wrong one, they should be nailed for it.

[gridlock]

I just find it amusing that when the state carries your children in a school bus, they can stack them like cordwood and nobody cares. But if your private vehicle does not have the right endorsement on the child seat, your goin' down. If it is so important that children wear seatbelts, why does the state exempt itself from this regulation?

PS. I have seen parents move car seats from car to car, without buckling them to the car! Needless to say, these parents are morons. But they are required to keep the child strapped into a car seat, so they move the seat, strap the child in, and off they go. Actually attaching the seat to the car is just too much trouble. It would be easier for them, and safer for the child, if they just buckled the kid into the car's seatbelt. But then the child would be obviously unrestrained, and they would get a ticket.

[gumbo]

You think this is bad, have you heard of the NJ Supreme Court's Abbott decision?

The socialist grandees who sit on that panel have decreed mandatory pre-school for 3 and 4 year olds in 28 so-called "Abbott districts" in mostly urban areas of NJ.

Here's their reasoning...

The Court reiterated that early childhood education is "essential" for the education of low-income children and stated that "pre-school education also has strong constitutional underpinning."

[spunkets]

"Anyone else resent this stupid, intrusive, We-know-better-than-you law?"

Yep! Glad I don't live there. This is typical of their nanny crap.

[d-back]

Right you are, Gumbo. The Abbott decision is outrageous, and New Jersey had to adopt an income tax because of its Supreme Court's rulings on education back in the seventies. The NJ Supremes relied on the state constitution's infamous "T&E" clause to find a constitutional "right" to equal school funding. (The clause reads, essentially, that the Legislature shall provide "thorough and efficient" free public schools, and the judges interpreted "thorough and efficient" to mean "funded with exactly equal dollar amounts regardless of local disparities in income, property taxes, or local public sentiment as to appropriate levels of expenditure.")

The New Jersey Supreme Court is one of the last, great Brennanite courts in the country, issuing agenda-based decrees from Mount Olympus to us mere mortals below with shameless zeal. These black-robed tyrants are the ones who UNANIMOUSLY found that there was nothing wrong with compelling the Boy Scouts of America to accept open homosexuals to act as guardians of young men. This outrage proved too much even for the spineless judges of the Supreme Court of the United States--who joined with stalwarts Scalia and Thomas to reverse the NJ Supreme Court by only the slimmest of margins.

New Jersey--The Garden State! And don't even ask me about our gun laws. . .

[mom of 2 GOP kids]

If it is the person's right not to wear a seatbelt, then should the hospital should have the right not to treat, since the patient's irresponsibility caused the trauma?

In fact, the answer to this question is Yes.

Yes, they should have the right, but they don't, plus, they won't - even if it were legal. It's not ethical. Is Dr. Frank an M.D? If you are, I'm sure you are well aware of those hefty malpractice premiums, ;)

Still, it burns me to see these people wheeled in after a fender bender in which all those belted walk away, but for the one to go through the windshield, while their family members look through the phone book for lawyers.

[Dr. Frank fan]

[refusing treatment] ... plus, they won't - even if it were legal. It's not ethical.

I agree with you, it's not ethical. And accordingly hospitals/doctors, being ethical decent people in this country for the most part, would never refuse treatment on such grounds in the first place. Good for them!

Not refusing treatment on ethical grounds is good. But when they turn around and say that in addition the government should mandate certain behavior among the general populace, just to alleviate the costs of their having ethics: that's where I draw the line.

You can't have it both ways: if you are doing something because of ethics, you can't argue that at the same time you should pay no cost. If you aren't doing something out of ethics, but merely because you are being forced to, then you should indeed argue that it is the force which is unjust, and that you should be free to be unethical if you wish.

Is Dr. Frank an M.D?

Heh, I get that a lot. "Dr. Frank" is the lead singer of my favorite silly punk rock band and that's who I was listening when I signed up for FR, so that's the nickname I chose at the time. I've often regretted it (everyone assumes I'm a "doctor", some even are resentful and make nasty comments about it...) but I'm too lazy to pick a different nick by now... :)

[Dr. Frank fan]

Still, it burns me to see these people wheeled in after a fender bender in which all those belted walk away, but for the one to go through the windshield, while their family members look through the phone book for lawyers.

P.S. yes that burns me too. Ridiculous lawsuits should be reined in. Not more laws passed.

[Focault's Pendulum]

. Anyone else resent this stupid, intrusive, We-know-better-than-you law?

Oh Yeah!!!! Living in one of the highest taxed states in the country.....the highest car insurance rate.....over regulated car inspection/emissions test (yeah right, it took over six months to get it working correctly, and don't get me started on that!), most densely populated in the country, all the taxes collected from the casinos goes to education (then why is my school tax so damn high) and senior citizens (80 year old mother derives 0% benefit), Garden State Parkway tolls, the "smooth" transition to EZ Pass, tax reassessments that caused me to lose my last house, and I'm only on my first scotch, mind you.....

I think the car seat law is just fu&%#ng nifty!!!!

[agrace]

You called it the "way back"? It was the "back in the back" in our family. :) One of my fondest memories is driving to FL from PA - leaving at about 2 am, falling asleep in the back in the back and waking up in hot humid Georgia. As a kid I would lie back there on the way home from Grandma's and try to follow where we were based on nothing but the turns we were making.

[backhoe]

I've opposed this stuff for years- fat lot of good it has done- "It's For The Childern's Sake," you know....

[babyfreep]

Well, my 7 1/2 yr. old is very tall and 78 lbs. and looks like she could be 9...maybe 10. They'd play he77 gettin' me to put her in a car-seat.

[Syncro]

Every person operating a motor vehicle, other than a school bus...

That's rite...I used to drive a school bus...they don't have or use seat belts...but I as the driver did...

All of these laws are a bunch of cr*p...

[Slyfox]

Does this mean that someone traveling through NJ, who is not from there,
will be ticketed also if they have an eight year old who's not in a car seat?

AN EIGHT YEAR OLD IS NOT A BABY.

[riley1992]

And you shouldn't have to. At her size and age it is none of their damn business whether or not she is in a booster seat or regular buckle.

[freekitty]

Did you read the part between 8 and 18 and under 80 pounds? Geez...the senarios are unbelievable. Just think of having your date come pick you up and having to strap you into a car seat in the back seat of the car? Or even worse, one of your kids. This is too unbelievable.

[gumbo]

Well said (re Abbott, Boy Scouts, and car seats). Bump.

[12B]

Germany is not "my nation" ding-dong. I just happen to be posted here for a while. And congratulations on being able to link a nice expensive booster-seat. I'm in virtual awe of your net searching ability. OTOH I bought one for $9.99 at the Wal-Mart in Shalotte, NC last summer and if you weren't so busy being a smart-ass you'd find that you can buy the same thing wherever you live. Nice chatting with you. Hope your kids don't get a neck-burn in your next fender-bender.

[ConservativeNJdad]

Police Officer: "Here is your license and registration. Thank you for cooperating with our random checkpoint. "(Pointing to my son in the back seat) "By the way, how old is your son?"

Me: "None of your fu**ing business."

[calvin sun]

Am I missing something? I just visited the NJ web site, Department of Transportation specifically. I see NO mention of this law, even in their section on "car seats." What's going on? Thanks.