I Got a Ticket. For...

Its a valid ticket, sorry. With how I see kids strapped (or not strapped) I wish more cops would give them out. Many of the child restraint laws have changed in the past year.

Go ahead and try to fight it if you care. I'm CERTAIN this is the first time she has done ths, It would probably be smart of you to keep quiet how you think stop signs are unnecessary and you are suc a good driver (June 7, 2011)

If she was not restrained properly according to the law, then he was right to ticket you. You were driving very fast with a kid not properly restrained, a double. I think you have to suck it up, pay the ticket and have a stern discussion with your daughter about not playing with the belts of her booster seat. It's not a matter of whether the officer has kids or understands that kids will do this sometimes. The kids must be restrained in compliance with the law, and it's the parents' job to make sure this happens.

Bring your daughter with you to court and have the judge give her a very stern talking-to. Most judges are parents and the vast majority of judges that I know would be happy to tell a little girl that she needs to be safe in the car. At the very least, she will see that her actions had consequences.

I remember my two year old figuring out how to unbuckle his five point harness. He got out of his car seat and walked up to see me as I was driving in traffic!

He saw what he saw and it wasn't correct so he gave you a ticket talk to your daughter about how dangerous it is to mess with a seat belt.

S.,
I got one too, I tried to contest it, but was unsuccessful. The judge said, it is your responsibility that your child is safely restraint at all times! it is your job to monitor him, and the moment you realize he is wrongly strapped, you have to pull over, and strap him correctly. Accidents happen in a split second, and it's better to be 5 -10 mins late, than regret the loss or harm of your child.
I agree with him, so now I constantly check they are strapped correctly, my son doesn't mess with the belt anymore, but my younger is at that age, so when that happens, I pull over as soon as I can, I fix her belt and keep going, and to be honest with you, I feel better.

Hope you find this helpful,
Good Luck

If there had been an accident your child would have likely died that way. This is a very, very dangerous position (to have the belt behind your back). Also, lap belts (alone) are not safe and cause internal injuries and fatalities.

A 4 or (most) 5-year-olds are not mature enough to sit in a booster seat, and this is why. Please, please put her in a 5 pt. harness. Then she'll be safe and you won't get ticketed.

Being strapped in in this manner can do more harm than good. The seatbelt becomes a killer. The officer was trying to protect her, it sounds like.
This is what a crash test with a lap belt and a child crash dummy look like...so please keep her safe!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTvadCM6IKk

When my son was about one and a half he figured out how to get out of his car seat while I was driving. This was the seat that had the plastic arm that goes over the baby with the five point harness. He was mini Houdini.
I panicked and tuned left into the nearest parking lot. It was some silly no left turn zone and a cop appeared immediately. I threatened my son and he got back down in the seat and sat still.
I got a ticket for the turn which later hurt a job opportunity (jerk).
Thank goodness for tinted windows so he didn't discover houdini in the back.
The cop should have given your daughter a speech instead of ticketing you. That probably would have had a lasting outcome.

That is frustrating........ is there any way you can fight that? You did what is in your power to strap her in correctly, but unfortunately, your daughter is the one who moved the seat belt. However, we are responsible for seeing that they STAY belted in properly.

That being said, a lot of people don't like the strap across their neck, so they tuck it under their arm.. (going through their armpit). We were visiting our daughter at college, and went to a Sunday School at her church.... during the class, during the prayer requests, someone talked about an accident a friend was in... a person was killed because they had their seatbelt across like that... it put improper pressure across the chest, and apparently tore the aorta from the pressure of the accident....

People don't realize how dangerous it is to do that.

I don't think it would hurt to go to court and try to contest it. Maybe take a photo of exactly how your daughter was buckled in with her bear, so you can show the judge that she WAS strapped in to a booster seat that was right for her size. There's no way to prove that she didn't take her arm out AFTER you pulled over, so the judge might throw out the ticket.

It also might help to explain to your daughter what big trouble it can cause to take her belt down. My son loves talking about all the things that police can arrest you or give you a ticket for, it's probably the only reason he stays buckled in. I bet if you tell your daughter how much the ticket costs, it will blow her mind.

I recently contested a charge for "passing on the right" which was BS. I got side swiped by a semi who fled the scene, and the officers cited me! I had to go to the courthouse twice but the judge threw it out, and I didn't have to pay a penny. As long as you're on your best behavior, it won't cost you any more to at least try to fight the ticket.

Mindy is completely right...still go to court and ask if they will forgive the citation. The judge will know you did something wrong to get stopped, so you will have to fess up to that when asked, but let the courts know that she is young and learning and you have already talked to her about the reason for wearing a restraint.

He must not have kids, anyone with kids would know that things like this happen every once and a while. Depending on how strict your laws states are would determine whether or not you can fight it.

In my state the laws are only geared towards infant/toddlers, beyond that they just have to be restrained. No specific wording on the 'how', but it's also still legal to ride in the back of a pick-up. Not something you see often unless people are out on the farm though.

I can't wear the belt around my chest, my boobs push it up to the point it sits around my neck and basically chokes me.

Please understand how many children in accidents this officer might have seen who have not made it out alive or with broken hurt children. Which could have and should have been prevented if the child were strapped in correctly. Its not about the fun of an officer getting to be in charge and slap your hands because he can. Its about your saftey. Sure there are thos officers who are just jerks but mostly he was thinking of your child and wants you to watch these little slip ups because while yes they werent a HUGE deal...you have no idea what he has seen or scooped up off the road. The combo of you slightly speeding and the slightly wrong seat belt was what caused it. He tried to give you a warning. And my kids are constantly sitting in there chair incorrectly or unbuckling while driving. Its what kids do. They are in training to be great adults. Sorry for taking the officers side over the no big deal thing. Thank God nothing happened while her seatbelt wasnt proper and you might have wrecked.

That is so frustrating!!! My 3 1/2 year old is big enough for a booster (more than big enough), but there is no way he's ready. I mean, I know he's supposed to be 4 to be ready, but we are getting close to that 4th birthday and I know we can't switch him.

He is also a little Houdini, as Glenna put it :-) He can almost get out of his 5-pt harness. Thankfully his little fingers aren't strong enough to push that crotch button (yet!). I just know that if he were in a 5-pt harness, I would be driving along and suddenly see his smiling face next to mine say, "Hi Mommy!" At this point, not only would my son be in danger from not being restrained, any car near me would be in danger because I would be freaking out!!!

I don't know if there's anything you can do about the ticket, but I'm willing to bet that this cope either doesn't have kids or has very non-adventurous kids (or has a wife that does all the child-rearing)!

But she WAS restrained, she had the lap belt portion on. I would fight it, that's a ridiculous ticket.

Sorry mom. This certainly stinks. I think that I'd buy a type of harness thingy (I can't remember what it's called) that fits over the seltbelt at her shoulder to prevent her from doing it. All the fussing in the world won't prevent it again "for sure". And you don't want to take a chance of her doing it and you getting in a wreck.

My kids never actually thought of doing this, so I escaped this problem. But if I had this problem to deal with, I would have gotten this harness.

Dawn

Unfortunately, there are too many people out there who flagrantly disobey the laws which have been in place for a long time, and so the police are way past giving warnings. He might also have considered that the car was going 75 in a 70 mile zone and not 35 in a 30 mile zone, who knows?

There are special rearview mirrors specifically for "child watch" purposes so you can see what your little one has done. I think there's also something you can get for the seatbelt that prevents her from pulling it enough to get her arm out - check with child safety product websites or your car dealer. That would be a lot cheaper than a ticket.

Usually, if you fight a ticket, they aren't going to use "I didn't see what my child did" as an excuse, any more than they use "I didn't see the speed limit sign" or "I didn't see the pedestrian." It's probably not worth your time to protest it. Just pay it and learn from it.

Go to court for the ticket, and while I don't think that contesting it will get the ticket thrown out you might get it reduced. Just tell the judge the truth and don't embellish. What you can do between now and the court date is to set up an appointment with your police station's traffic officer. That officer should be able to show you how to secure the belts in a way that the children can't fidget with them... or even recommend a seat or fastener that would work best for your situation.

Then when you go to court, you can tell the judge the steps that you took to attempt to rectify the situation.

Sorry -- I answered but had misread your post. I thought you said she wasn't in a booster seat.

Revenue generation at its finest . . . it's not like your child is an infant with no control over the situation.

Has this holier-than-thou cop ever dealth with a 5 year old?

I'm not saying that it's right - just that he could have warned you and that would have been sufficient imho. It's not like she was bouncing all over the back seat of the car.

SMH.

I don't know that you will be able to successfully contest the ticket.

If you were going 30 in a 25mph zone, the impact of a collision wouldn't have been nearly so great, but you were going 75 with other vehicles going 70. The impact of a collision at those speeds could have been fatal to your child.

While I believe you that it's the first time she's ever done it, hopefully it will also be her last. She is old enough to understand that she cannot mess with her booster seat in any way while you are driving. If she wants her bear buckled in with her, it has to be done, by you, before the car gets started or she just has to wait until you get where you're going. That's the rule.

My daughter was a little Houdini and could get herself out of just about anything. One day, she got out of her carseat while I was going down the freeway. It scared me to death. P.S. - Those types of distractions while you're on the highway aren't safe either. I had to wait for a place where I could safely pull over. Then I got in the back seat and spanked her butt. She was 2 and I wasn't going to muffy fluff around about trying to get her to understand about tickets, the dangers of driving and traffic, etc. She DID understand that she was going to get popped on the seat of the pants if she tried it again.

I know child restraint tickets are expensive. You can probably make payment arrangements if you need to.

Your daughter is old enough to understand danger and safety. There are laws to protect children and we have to follow them. Her bear can't get hurt, but she can.

Best wishes.

My mother use to let us crawl around unrestrained at all in the car; I thikn she was worn out by having four kids so close in age and didn't know what to do half of the time. I know it might seem like a pain, but I'd agree with the others who say it's a valid ticket; you could try to contest it, but frankly they have no proof (even if I really do believe you) that this isn't a habitual problem. I don't agree with another response - you can't prove it didn't happen until after you pulled over but you can't prove that it did either, and the fact that it happened on a freeway/highway isn't going to look good either, because your child really shouldn't be unrestrained even then in case of an impact - there are a lot of accidents on highways that are the result of an impact on the shoulder. So I think it'd just be better to take the ticket, say it stinks because its never really happened before, but I guess it is what it is. I'm kind of paranoid and always have been so I habitually check to make sure any child in my car is properly restrained - I've pulled over at the earliest opportunity, told the child that we would sit there all day until the restraints remained in place, and told them all about the wonderful and interesting things we would be missing if they continued to do that - it has always worked, even with very young children. Kind of stinks when you are in a hurry, but I'm not going to sacrifice safety just to get somewhere on time (not that I'm implying in any way that you are, so please don't take that wrong). And lord knows kids can be little boogers like that and you can't keep an eye on them 100% of the time. I just would never, ever forgive myself if something happened to a child in my vehicle so I am very careful about restraint. I agree with other responses - accidents happen in a split second - you wouldn't expect it, but could you live with the consequences? I'm guessing no mother or anyone could if something did happen.