Woman Being Investigated For Driving With Baby On Her Lap

After a long day, I laid down in my bed, turned on the television to watch the news and what I saw next woke me right back up.  In big headlines I see, “Albuquerque Police Department investigates woman driving with baby on her lap posts video on Facebook.”

In the Facebook video post, you can clearly see the baby on her lap as the scenery flies by in the window.  In response to her video, Albuquerque Police Department (APD) received many concerned citizens’ phone calls including from the woman’s family members who were concerned for the safety of the baby.

According to APD, she will only receive a traffic citation for not properly restraining baby in the car seat.  A mere traffic citation is what this woman would get because it would be difficult to proceed with child abuse charges because the video doesn’t show the person’s face holding the baby and the police did not witness in person.

The mother claims this woman in the video isn’t her but if you watch the video, the woman clearly can be heard saying, “Go Son.” It sickens me that someone would do such a careless and incredibly dangerous thing.  There are obviously two women in the car and as one drove with baby on her lap the other was recording the whole thing and then they post the video for the world to see on Facebook!

When I was a baby, car seats were not regulated or enforced by law.  In fact, the latch system didn’t even exist in my 1997 Toyota 4Runner.  My parents just held onto us or put us in a normal seat belt restraint.  During both of my pregnancies, I was constantly reminded about the importance of having babies in their car seats at all times while the vehicle is moving.  Upon giving birth, the hospital I delivered at required checking the car seat that our newborn would be using before we could even get discharged.

I can’t imagine that these two women didn’t know any better and the fact that this only results in a traffic citation for something so dangerous is appalling and disheartening.  My only hope is these woman learn from this and if the mother isn’t the person driving, she choses better people to care for her baby in the future.

(The Video Has Since Been Removed)