Chapter 87 Question 078

Why are child safety seats required in cars but not in airplanes? (Greg Barrett) Government regulations require you to securely strap your child in a safety-approved seat in your car, even if it's just to go grocery shopping at the nearby grocery store.But if you're flying from New York to Los Angeles, you can hold your baby on your lap without a seatbelt.How to explain this difference? Some people think the reason is that if the plane crashes, you will not be able to save your life whether you wear a seat belt or not.That's true, but there are many things that can happen besides a crash, such as when the plane encounters violent turbulence, in which case wearing a seat belt can go a long way.

To come up with a more reasonable explanation, let's make some observations first.Once you have a child safety seat in the back of your car, it costs nothing to strap your child in because there is always room in the back seat to allow you to do it.Since the marginal cost is zero and the marginal benefit is increased safety for the child in the car, it makes perfect sense to buckle up the child in a car seat while driving.But if you take a flight from New York to Los Angeles and the flight is full, you have to buy an extra ticket to strap your child in the seat.That's going to set you back about a thousand dollars (even if you're on a discounted late-night weekend flight).

It might make many people uncomfortable to say that extra safety for kids while flying is expensive, but it comes down to it.So they cling to their baby and hope that all goes well instead of paying an extra thousand dollars for another empty seat.