Car Seat Regulations: I recently heard a rumor that the child seat regulations are being changed again. Child safety laws are a good thing in the sense that without them, many children would be subjected to unsafe environments and practices. There comes a point, however, when the laws cease to make practical sense and become ridiculous.

Car seats have offered safety to millions of children since they have become a required apparatus of child transportation, but the point of ridiculous has been reached. I have heard that the new regulation is 4 foot 9 inches. It may not sound like a ridiculous measurement to many, but for those of us who are genetically predisposed to petite stature it is. I have a 13-year-old middle school child who would be subject to the humiliation of riding in a car seat. The old regulations often included a weight and age, whichever was reached first. Thank heavens for the age clause, because that same child would have been in a car seat until sixth grade given the last regulations!

We are very petite, fine boned people who follow healthy dietary standards, therefore don't carry excess body fat and don't meet the common weight standards. My 17-year-old has a teammate who has begun driving and doesn't meet the new car seat regulations. One of my doctors has a daughter who begins driving this year, and she doesn't meet the new standards.

How is that law going to be enforced in cases such as that? How will the law be enforced with those presenting dwarfism genetics that drive? How can this law be enforced when there are school buses loaded with children who do not meet the requirement?

A law is a law, and how effectively can a law be penned when it must be laden with so many exceptions to said law. Are the car seat manufacturers funding the child safety lobbies? Are our lawmakers really that shortsighted? Really, this is yet another example of a good idea being taken out of context.

Tracy Herman

Moravia