car seats requirement in france

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car

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in ireland you can seat a child in the middle of 2 car seats if you cant fit another one in.
Anyone know if you can do same in france, we're going with 3 children. I managed to find the legal thingy and it doesnt mention that exclusion but does say its up to the driver to make sure all passengers are suitably restrained. Which they would be, I dont want to be pulled over and be told even though the child is belted up that she has to be in a seat.

I dont believe the car we're hiring will have room for 3 seats as the hiring company cant guarantee the car we're going to get. None of them can apparently, theyll only guarantee you a class of a car.
 
Are any of the children old enough for a booster seat? These don't really take up any extra space (provided they don't have backs on them which I doubt they would from a car hire company).
 
If all your kids need car seats how are you going to properly restrain the one without a seat? There is a reason for laws about car seats - to protect a child. I would be more concerned with ensuring all my children were as safe as possible rather than worrying about complying with the law. I do realise that it is a very difficult situation when the car hire company can't guarantee a particular type of car.
 
Our eldest is nearly 6 and we have her on a non-back booster at present between the other 2. Can just about squeeze it in.

I dont see much difference between having her on on a booster and not except shes maybe 2 inches higher. What I mean is when the belt is on, the restraint seems to be as safe, its not like its around her head, it still goes down over her shoulder so Im happy its ok, the law in ireland is happy shes ok, Im concerned that the law in france may not. Sure we'll find out next week.

I rang the car company and the extremely helpful guy said if we tried to fit the 3 car seats and they dont go in whatever mdoel car we get, ask for an upgrade and if ones available they should sort us out FOC
 
car said:
I dont see much difference between having her on on a booster and not except shes maybe 2 inches higher.
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The rationale for the booster seat is to position the lap belt in the optimum way across the child's pelvis. So that if there is a crash the direct pressure on the pelvis is minimised.

When children are involved in road traffic accidents with the adult seat belt on without a booster, there can be severe damamge to their pelvis.
Particularly the growth plates and this affects their leg length etc down the line.

Similar disruption of an adult pelvis would not have such serious long term ramifications.
 
This thread could easily turn into a rant accusing the OP of child abuse by having her child in the middle without a booster.
The situation described is allowable in law in Ireland, once the child is tall enough and is considered by safety authorities here to be safe.

I was in the same situation going to Spain this year, of not wanting to risk a 5 seater in case the 3 would not fit in the back. As you dont know what size the car seat and boosters for the other two kids will be like, you dont know if she will fit in the middle
anyway. Car seats and boosters in hire cars can be huge sometimes.

I ended up booked a car, which I was guaranteed was a 7 seater to avoid this problem.
 
huskerdu said:
This thread could easily turn into a rant accusing the OP of child abuse by having her child in the middle without a booster.
Click to expand...

I hope my post didn't come across that way,as I do it too from time to time.
But there is a good rationale for the booster seats at the same time.
 
My advise is to take your own child/baby seats with you on the plane.
We had awful trouble with Hertz in France, dirty, broken and sick stained seats. Also the car rental guys are not allowed demonstrate on how to fit the car seats in the car....crazy.
On our second trip to France, we brought our own and had peace of mind!
Hope this is of some help to you.:)
 
car said:
Im concerned that the law in france may not. Sure we'll find out next week.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't worry about it. I've driven a fair bit in France and only been stopped once by les Flic, with five kids in the car, and they only had a cursory glance in the car before waving us on.
 
thanks to all comments.

@mommah, I realised you were only making the point about the boosters. Tis fine. Ive done the homework on the boosters and seats and am happy enough.

My wife got on to to a friend of a friend in france whose French husband said it is actually law over there so thats answer to the principle question I had. I got back on to carhire co. and and the thing to do is to make sure that the car we do hire is a 5 passenger car and specify in extra details the ages and weights of the children and they should know to give us a suitable car.

@luckylou, we've been away each year for last 3 on fly/drive hols and have had no issues with car seats (very happy in fact due to nice hertz people) and have gone with ryanair/hertz each time, so may have been a once off. Anyway, we considered it and even carrying 1 seat extra with us isnt a logistical runner Im afraid with babys, bags and buggys etc.

@huskerdu,
I ended up booked a car, which I was guaranteed was a 7 seater to avoid this problem.
Click to expand...
what make/model you get?

thanks all. I'll update after and let ye know what happened.
 
Hi,
We got a Volkswagen Touran, which with 7 seats all used, has a boot about the size of my handbag. We survived, but only by stacking a lot of luggage, including the buggy in the unused seats.
 
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