Honolulu Lite
THE main argument against the proposed "mandatory booster seat" bill in the state legislature seems to be families with a lot of kids couldn't afford them, even if all the seats could fit in their cars. Gov needs to become
a car seat boosterThey have a point. If you have 12 children under the age of eight, or under 80 pounds, which the law would concern, you'd need a school bus to haul them around in.
Gov. Ben Cayetano said he's received a number of calls and e-mails from people who have scads of children who are worried about the cost of complying with such a law. Foster parents told the governor that they have seven or eight kids who would be required under the proposed law to sit in booster seats and urged him to veto the bill.
This is a tough call, especially considering that it's illegal for kids to ride around in the back of a pickup truck. And let's not forget that it also is illegal for you to haul your dog around in the back of a pickup truck unless he is restrained. And, by the way, you are not allowed to carry a load of lawn cuttings unless they is restrained by a tarp or some such.
So, here we are. Dogs are protected. Lawn clippings are protected. And children under 12 are protected at least regarding riding in pickup trucks. Right now kids under 4 years old are required to be in child seats, or booster seats, but 5 year olds, who are just about the same size as 4 year olds are not.
Long ago the government made wearing seatbelts mandatory because a lot of people were like our esteemed UH football coach June Jones. Jones says he chooses not to wear a seatbelt because he likes to live on the edge. After falling asleep at the wheel and smashing into a wall, he nearly died. We saved his life. At least our tax money did since we pay for emergency services.
How did Jones thank us? He went right out and broke the law, going 70 miles per hour on his motorcycle then bragging that he planned to go even faster in the future.
I think if Jones loves living on the edge so much, he ought to finance his own personal emergency medical team to save his butt in the future.
But what does that have to do with kid seats?
What we are talking about here is physics. Basic stuff about the movement of objects at certain speeds and what happens when that speed is suddenly diminished. What happens is that people who are unrestrained in a crashing car go sploosh. Like coach Jones.
But he made the conscious decision to go sploosh. If he wants to think it's cool that he went sploosh and lived and is willing to go sploosh again, that's his deal. But children don't have that choice. They have to trust us.
If conventional seat belts don't keep kids from going sploosh, then we need something better, like child safety seats. If it takes eight booster seats crammed into a car, then that's what it takes. Kids need to be protected at least as well as our dogs and rubbish.
Alo-Ha! Friday compiles odd bits of news from Hawaii
and the world to get your weekend off to an entertaining start.
Charles Memminger also writes Honolulu Lite Mondays,
Wednesdays and Sundays. Send ideas to him at the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210,
Honolulu 96813, phone 235-6490 or e-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com.
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