Safe Speed Forums

Something of a rant ...

When I have my kids in the car I will put up a 'child on board' sign. If they aren't in the car I take it down, even to the extent that I've stopped at a layby to go to the back of the car to take it down if I have forgotten about it.

I also display a 'compressed air on board' sign if I am transporting cylinders.

I do this for one reason only - to alert the emergency services (in the case of an accident) that there are things on board that need attention. The former because they cannot get out on their own, the latter because in the case of a fire they may go 'boom'.

My father in law was a fireman and he has always supported this way of doing things.

WHY, then, do they sell 'child on board' stickers that are NOT removable? And WHY do people blithley drive around with them displayed when there are no kids in the car?

And don't get me started on people who transport kids without proper restraints.

(sorry, had to get this off my chest).

Andy

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

I'm glad you made this post .

For years I have always wondered what the purpose of those signs were for......

I had wrongly assumed that perhaps I was meant to adjust my own driving in some way or accept driving errors on their part....

I can see now that they make sense......... if used correctly.

When Marge bought one on the Simpsons she said something like
"Look! A little sign to stop people driving into us on purpose"


the thing that got my Father in Law annoyed was that, on seeing a sign, they would then go and look for a child - perhaps thrown out of the vehicle - or spend more time on that vehicle meaning that others were not attended to.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

The way some cars with "Child on board" stickers are driven we could be forgiven for thinking it refers to the drivers. And I'm sure it's usually these folks who don't bother taking the damn sign out when their sprogs are not in the car. Actually I think Handy is in a minority here, as pretty much everyone I know leaves their sign up all the time. Some of them probably still have a faded sticker displayed when they're driving up to their kid's uni for graduation. Trouble is, doesn't that totally defeat the object of having them in the first place? It's like car alarms - the damn things go off so often that the normal reaction is just "wish someone would go and shut that bloody car alarm up".

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I've seen this fallacy posted a few times, and it's nonsense, that simply isn't the reason these signs exist. Are you really implying that if you have no sign, the emergency services won't check for a child? Or that a small plastic sign is easier to spot than a baby?

The only purpose the signs serve, so far as I can tell, are to announce to the world that you have managed to have sex and produce an offspring. Well bully for you, but it's unlikely the rest of the world care, so there's really no need to advertise it to all and sundry.

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Carl Prescott

Explain exactly HOW is it a fallacy.

Fallacy n., pl. -cies. False belief, unsound reasoning - fallacious adj.

I am telling the world in general (or the subset who read this forum) the EXACT reason why I do what I do. I have not said "people do this because ...." which could be described as fallacious but more accurately as a sweeping generalisation.

So by putting "compressed air on board" in my window, what am I telling the world?

As I say, I've had the advice direct from someone who has attended multiple pile ups. Where do you get your information from?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

I know a couple of firefighters, and I've had this discussion with them before. Not one pays the slightest bit of attention to baby on board signs because 99% of them remain in the car whether a child is present or not, and because a baby is easier to spot than a little plastic sign (which is almost certainly going to become detached from the window/car in any kind of incident that will require the emergency services attendance anyway).

As for proof, well logic clearly shows it to be a fallacy -- and for clarity, the fallacy is the belief that these signs are for the emergency services' benefit -- but the best I can offer you for proof is a link to Snopes, which I'm sure you'll rubbish as it's on the Internet (sources listed at the bottom of the article):

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/babysign.htm

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Carl Prescott

"Child on Board".

Good for you!

What you mean to say is........."I AM FERTILE"

Nothing wrong with being a proud dad bit I don't think the do anything for road safety.

What ever you do P l e a s e don't get one of those "small person on board" stickers.........that is getting too daft.

and so is "dads taxi"

My wife has "I have PMS and a gun, any questions?"

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Speed camera policy Kills

answer the question about "compressed air on board"?

Apologies for the sarcastic comment, it was beneath me and I have removed it.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

One I've seen recently is "Princess on board". No offence to anyone who's got one, but Mrs Gatsobait and I just thought . The worrying thing was that there were various other stickers plus soft toys and various other stuff on the parcel shelf - the driver probably had a great view of the assorted crap in the rear view mirror, but how much of the actual road behind would they have been able to see?

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Having helped to search ditches after a messy car wreck in case someone else had ben thrown clear, I appreciate the underlying concept of prior knowledge for the emergency services.

But the damn 'baby on board' thing is so widely misused that I have serious doubts that any real benefit remains.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Having compressed air on board is an exceptional situation, so a warning sign is a sensible thing to carry, providing it is removed when no compressed air is present.

Having children on board is entirely normal, so there is no need of a sign no advise of such, any more than there is a requirement for a sign that says "adults on board" or "flammable fuel in tank".

If you want to display the sign when you have children on board, I have no problem with that (outside of thinking it's utterly pointless), I am simply pointing out that your belief that it helps the emergency services is somewhat incorrect.

Oh, and apology accepted on the snarky comment front, I've removed your quote from my post also.

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Carl Prescott

If a human has been thrown clear of the car and cannot be spotted, what are the chances of the little plastic sign with a crappy sucker to stick it to your window still being around? If you can't spot an entire person, how are you going to spot a little sign?

Even assuming that is what they're for (and it really isn't, they're not for anything other than the vanity of parents), don't you think the amount of time spent looking for children where signs haven't been removed far, far, far outweighs any benefits?

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Carl Prescott

taking on board what has been said, I'm still not going to stop putting the sign up whenever I transport any of the brood, but there is a strong argument for putting it (and the compressed air sign) on the side rear window instead of the rear window.

Back to my original rant, though:
- There is NO reason to have a non-removable one on sale.
- It doesn't take too much time or effort to remove it when there are no kids on board, so why leave it showing?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

and therein lies the reason for my rant. We agree on something!

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Absolutely 100% agree.

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Carl Prescott

Well, the sign probably doesn't have enough weight to be able to carry on very far. Often it might remain attached and visible.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

If the children are strapped in as they are supposed to be, then they will still be in the car and easily found - for those that might think a BOB sign will stop baby being found days later frozen under a seat, please consider buying a decent and correctly fitted baby seat with 5 point harness. It will do a lot more good than any sign would.

I don't think that most people that are going to hit your vehicle will be close enough to read any such sign until it is too late. If they are tailgating close enough to read it, then I don't think it will change their behaviour one bit - it's how they drive, but any resulting impact will be relatively low velocity exactly because they were that close in the first place.

Hampshire police can't even find the rider of a motorcycle in a fenced duel c/way. they just moved his running motorbike out of the way

council workers found him next morning dead.

he had been drinking... so they put up a speed camera... logical (not)