Can you put kids in the front seat of a car?

Two questions:

You have 3 (young) kids, can you put one in the front of a 4-seater?

You have one kid and a corvette - can he go out in the passenger seat?

This is NJ, USA, BTW.

Ericka Kammerer...

Can you? Or should you? I don't know about the
laws in NJ (though you can probably web-search them if you
need that information). You absolutely must not put a
child in a rear-facing car seat in the front seat if
there's an airbag. Other than that, the issue is that
children under 13 years old or so are less safe in the
front seat than properly restrained in the rear seat.
Air bags are dangerous for kids, so disable it or move
the kid as far away from it as possible.
Personally, if it was an occasional thing,
I'd disable the air bag and move the kid back
(with the child in the appropriate car seat, of
course). I wouldn't be comfortable with it as
any sort of regular solution, though.
Of the state laws I've seen, most do have
some provision for putting children in the front
seat if there are no other seats available, but
you really would have to check NJ's laws to be
sure. There's a reasonable amount of variation
from state to state.

Best wishes,
Ericka

enigma...

how old are the kids? can you turn off the airbag?
*if* you can fit a carseat safely in the front seat *and* you
can shut off the airbag, then yes, you can put a child under
12 in the front seat. if you can't do *both* of those things,
than NO. it's not safe & probably illegal. your state car
restraint laws should be on the state division of motor
vehicles website.
lee

Cathy Kearns...

Perhaps I'm reading it wrong, but it kind of implies that if you have a back
seat, all children under 12 must be in the back seat, even if there isn't a
seat belt for them all. But if you don't have a back seat, and the child is
either in a front facing car seat or booster or is over 8 or over 80 pounds
they may sit in the front seat.