Children in the back

lynall said:

Thats not the whole story though is it?
No mention of speeds or accident details and as its a land rover mag naturally they pick out the bits they think their readers will latch on to.
Im sure around town the defender is just great, get some speed up on and thats not going to be the case.

Click to expand...

Neither is riding a bike or driving a convertible.

It's not so much the safety features (or lack of them) but the fact that they are just not crashed very much. When did you last see an accident reported where a Defender was involved?
It's mostly stolen ones where they are crashed.
When did you last see a Defender tearing down the outside lane of the motorway, three feet from the car in front....or being driven badly on a Saturday night round your local town?
They are not generally bought by people who drive like to$$ers.

300bhp/ton said:

Actually the DfT has previously rated the Defender very safe.



Let's face it. There are far more dangerous and risky daily tasks than riding in the back of a Defender. Crossing the road, going on the motorway, driving in rush hour, using the Tube, etc etc.

Click to expand...

being dead after crash means you don't count as "injured"

personally id really rather not have a crash in the 110, but I still use it, and the kids go in it. As previously mentioned, everything is dangerous these days that was deemed perfectly acceptable just a relatively few years ago.

You probably won't ever crash.

Certainly less likely than the stream of cars titting down the M60 at over 80mph this morning in torrential rain and spray.

Fletch1004 said:

Thank you for each of the very clear and concise replies.

I wanted a 90 for myself but the girls would like to go on the occasional adventurous school run so it looks like a 110 is the way to go.

Click to expand...

All their friends will want rides in the Landy too lol!

NorfolkBird said:

All their friends will want rides in the Landy too lol!

Click to expand...

funny how they do

jamesmartin said:

funny how they do

Click to expand...

It's such great fun - picnics and the like

NorfolkBird said:

It's such great fun - picnics and the like

Click to expand...

we used to have the kids arguing at parties who got to go in the landy and who unluckily to them got to go in the car, we did have a great summer holiday in wales a rare one with great weather,with a lightweight with the canvas off kids loved it

jamesmartin said:

funny how they do

Click to expand...

Yep, every opportunity! Spent a happy weekend at the Warwickshire Scout jamboree thing last Summer with 5 or 6 of us reckon we trugged about 300 kids round a gentle off road course....

As for safety......endless hours as a small kid with 4 or 5 of us loose in the back of a mini pickup round the Dorset lanes.....'different times'.....as Simon Mayo would say ;-) A

How I am still alive is beyond me. We regularly used to drive to the south of france in my dads s3 90 sw with no seat bekts and side facing seats as a nipper, this was then replaced with a rrc with large bench seat again with no seat belts. We used to slide across the back seat every time he went around a corner.

My 90 has two forward facing seats with 3 pont belts in it. If we are going anywhere with dogs and all for of us we take the disco 3. Just me and kids we take mine as getting two kids in the rear and getting the seatbelts up between the seats isnt much fun

The Defender "gets away with it" due to the type of vehicle it is, and the way it generally gets driven by owners.
The safety features largely comprise the above, with seat belts being the only thing improved from the 1960's.
It's done well to survive as long as it has in the health and safety led society we live in today.

I always remember the sticker I had on back of the 109 - "If you can read this, remember you are my crumple zone".

as i said to my mother when my dad hit an lt35 head on with his motorbike.

- id rather have hit the van on his motorbike than in my landy.

My 6 year old (1.23m high, this week) is not going to be happy about me acting on this thread, the side facing seats are where the funs the most she says.

I didn't even consider there would be an issue with the side facing seats and went with a 2002 CSW 90 because of the extra seating arrangement in the back, homework never was my strong point tho.

So we are still none the wiser then, this year 4 of us went to the billing show 3 adults and one child think he is 10 ( not mine ) with one child and one adult sat in the back on side facing rear seats with lap belts used and no booster's used, was i breaking the law as i thought i was ok with this at the time but now i am not sure

cornish rattler said:

So we are still none the wiser then, this year 4 of us went to the billing show 3 adults and one child think he is 10 with one child and one adult sat in the back on side facing rear seats with lap belts used and no booster's used, was i breaking the law as i thought i was ok with this at the time but now i am not sure

Click to expand...

not if he is over 135 cms

Personally I think the whole law is a bit OTT. Given that people are quite happy to let kids of any age ride on a bus with no seat belts going forwards, backwards, sideways or standing up, we can only conclude that buses are never involved in an accident?

Yes, the safest way to travel is in a forward or rear-facing seat, with a properly-fitting 3-point seatbelt. Make it the driver's responsibility to ensure than young passengers are using the seatbelts provided, adapted by means of a booster or child seat if necessary. However, if the design of the vehicle makes it impractical or impossible to do so (there's a line in the law that says the adult belt can be used in the middle seat if 2 child seats prevent fitting of a third) it should then be a common sense ruling, where the driver should be responsible to make the fitted seats as safe as practical.

Non-conforming vehicles must be a relatively small fraction of those on the road, and rather than an effective ban on using seats which were fitted by the manufacturer as standard (and in the case of old Land Rovers, clearly intended more for kids to use) a bit of sanity wouldn't go amiss.

cornish rattler said:

So we are still none the wiser then, this year 4 of us went to the billing show 3 adults and one child think he is 10 with one child and one adult sat in the back on side facing rear seats with lap belts used and no booster's used, was i breaking the law as i thought i was ok with this at the time but now i am not sure

Click to expand...

Did you not read the reply from the DfT that I posted then??

When l contacted them they said that children could be carried in side facing Defender rear seats if it was a "necessary journey".

jamesmartin said:

we used to have the kids arguing at parties who got to go in the landy and who unluckily to them got to go in the car, we did have a great summer holiday in wales a rare one with great weather,with a lightweight with the canvas off kids loved it

Click to expand...

That sounds brilliant!