Safety comes with a price tag

By Dave Churchill (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, May 11, 2007

Although it is something I never thought I would say, I am pleased this week to be the parent of two teen-agers. More accurately, I’m more pleased than if I was the parent of, for instance, a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old.

Because Minnesota is closing in on a new law that would require that kids be in special booster seats until they are 8 years old. Although it is not law as of this writing, it is sure soon to be, because the federal government is showing big chunks of money on every state that adopts the more elaborate restraint rule. The state Senate, at least, has added older-age restraints to its transportation bill.

It has been well over 10 years since our household has had to worry about special seats for kids, because the current age of conversion to standard seatbelts is 4. But we have not forgotten what a pain it was to constantly make sure the necessary baby seats or booster seats or whatever were strapped into the car most likely to transport the children.

And if it was a pain to keep those youngsters ensconced in their boosters at age 4 (or whenever we quit using them), can you imagine how much fun it is going to be dealing with 8-year-olds? Not much.

Those of us who are Baby Boom-age can remember that there were years when kids did not even wear seat belts, much less ride in fancy booster seats. My earliest car-riding memory is of standing on the drive-train hump, peering between the bucket front seats of whatever my parents drove.

Then one day my father came home from work and announced that the car contained “a big surprise” for my brother and me. As the oldest, and quickest-thinking, I shoved my brother onto the ground -- in case the surprise was of a limited quantity -- and raced out to the car. To this day I can hardly bear to remember the disappointment that the “big surprise” was the installation of after-market rear-seat seatbelts.

Dad’s a real comedian.

In any case, I am pleased that we are past the age that I would have to tell a 7-year-old about the big surprise of returning to a booster seat. And I am glad I will not have to wrestle a whole fleet of such seats when transporting children and friends to a school event or a sleep-over.

What a pain. Safe, sure. But inconvenient.

However, strapping the kiddies down tight is all in the name of safety, something against which we hardly dare raise a complaint. Safety, after all, is the unassailable watchword in America today.

It is safety that has driven plans for a statewide smoking ban. There are many reasons to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, including that the fumes are just plain old disgusting to non-smokes. But it is worker safety that has nearly (as of this writing) pushed the ban to legal status.

And it was the name of safety that we gave federal agents far too much new authority to probe our library records, snuffle through our phone calls and generally intrude into our lives in ways that Americans once would never have accepted.

There is no denying that safety is a good thing. No doubt keeping our young kids better-restrained in the car will save lives and prevent injuries. But one can’t help but shudder a bit every time that we enhance safety at the cost of personal choice.

Journal publisher Dave Churchill’s column runs on Fridays.