Corvettes and child safety seats - not meant for each other?

[macvette]

Hello all,

I've got a 1996 coupe and a 2 year old. Is there a SAFE way to have my little guy ride with me in the Vette? The owners manual says that forward facing car seats can be used if the seat is pushed all the way back. Even with the seat all the way back, can the air bag injure a small person in a car seat?

Has anyone had a switch installed to disable the passenger air bag? What did it cost to have the switch installed? Did a Chevy dealer do it?

Do C5 models have an option to turn off the passenger side air bag?

I want to take my boy to the car shows in the Vette instead of the minivan!

Thanks,
Jim
macvette

 

[montanabob]

macvette,
Check out the site below. There is a lot of useful information there to help you make an informed decision. I was facing nearly the same situation last fall, and found this site. I found the independant panel report especially intesting. If you read through all of the documentation on the site, you find that every case of a child fatality was due to improperly restraining the child in the front seat(at least that is what I read last year in their info). I'm not recommending placing your 2-year old in the front, but you may want to take a look a the info. In the end, my wife and I decided not to install the switch, because it looked like it was much safer to have the air bag active and properly restrain the child than to deactivate the bag. my $.02.

Also our daughter is very large for her age: at 3 1/2 she was 50 lbs and 42 inches tall. Here in Il if she were 4 the height and weight are above the limits to require a seat.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/airbags/