As the mother of two boys (one is 7, the other is 17), I'm no stranger to the world of car and booster seats and respect the importance of ensuring all passengers are safely belted into any moving vehicle. I'm frightened by the footage I've seen that demonstrates the impact of airbags on the human body, and even more fearful of its powerful force on my offspring.

We've published enough articles on Car Seat and Booster Seat safety here at AskPatty to educate a driving school on the topic. In my mind there is NO EXCUSE for NOT BUCKLING kids into the car.

I recently followed and reported a taxi driver in Encino who had a young child (maybe five or six years old) not just IN THE FRONT SEAT, but HANGING OUT OF the passenger window like a dog enjoying the breeze. The driver told me it was none of my business, but his employer took it very seriously when I called in his car number to report his dangerous driving. And in case you're curious, there was no other passenger in the car, so it was either HIS OWN KID, or he was transporting the child (unbuckled and in the front seat) as a paying passenger.

I also remember the time a few years ago when I stopped a woman on her way into the preschool my youngest boy attended. It was clear to me that her small charge was out of the car too quickly to have escaped the treachery of the buckle release with his little hands. Sure enough, when I peeked through the window I could see the rear passenger seat buckle hidden under a blanket and the latches on the required car seat still snapped into their connections. That four-year-old was rattling around in the back seat like a sack of groceries.