Comment on this story

Child restraints and memorable institutions

Child restraint is serious business, as any parent knows, or should know. In a moving motor vehicle, lack of adequate child restraint can be especially serious business, leading to serious injury or death in a life just beginning.

For that reason, the Tennessee General Assembly, the originators of child safety seat legislation nationally three decades ago, should be applauded mightily this year for redefining and expanding its child restraint law to protect all people under age 16 and making all drivers responsible for providing safety equipment for the young and making sure that it is installed and used properly. Drivers who don’t are subject to ticketing and a fine.

The previous law protected children up to age 4, requiring them to be strapped into a federally approved child safety seat. Under the new law, children under 20 pounds or younger than age 1 must be in an approved seat that faces backward. Forward-facing safety seats are required for kids up to age 4 or 40 pounds, and an approved booster seat is required for children 4 to 8 and less than 5-feet-5 inches tall. From ages 9 through 15 or any child more than 5-feet-5, the requirement is the use of a regular seat belt system meeting federal standards. In each instance, children under 12 must be secured in a rear seat, if the vehicle has one.

It is the responsibility of the parents of children who have medical conditions that prevent them from using the approved equipment safely to obtain and carry or assign to the driver a doctor’s prescription that states the child’s reason for exemption.

The fine for violation of the new law is up to $50, and there is a provision that allows for persons found guilty of a first offense to be required to attend a training session on the hazards of not properly transporting children.

Motor vehicle rental agencies are also required to make approved child safety seats and booster seats available at a reasonable charge.

It’s hard to imagine a better set of requirements to place on motorists who transport children. It’s a shame that the limit on the fine is $50 per occurrence, but then, it’s also a shame that the fine for an adult not wearing a seat belt is less than that. People would be more likely to comply under threat of a larger fine.

Securing people of all ages in their seats is not only a public safety issue; it saves the expense of treating the kinds of injuries that are almost guaranteed if the vehicle is in a collision or runs into a stationary object when safety seats or lap and shoulder belts are not in use. Some of those injuries can have lifelong effects.

The Hope Clock has stood sentinel on Gay Street, providing Knoxvillians with both a landmark and the correct time, for more than 100 years. It was moved from the west to the east side of Gay by the Hope Bros. jewelers in the 1920s, and it was passed to Kimball’s Jewelry in the 1930s, when the store just north of Union Avenue was bought by Kimball’s.

The jeweler closed the Gay Street store, soon to become a martini bar, about two years ago, but the clock remained in place and Kimball’s has maintained it faithfully. Now, Kimball’s is readying a new store on Kingston Pike in Bearden and is considering moving the clock to a new location there, leaving Gay Street denuded of its statuesque timekeeper.

It would seem out of place on Bearden Hill, and it would leave downtown without its graceful, useful presence. Too bad the clock isn’t protected by some kind of historic overlay or National Register, as an institution of that sort ought to be. It’s up to Jim Overby, the Kimball’s owner, to decide what to do with the property his company acquired about two-thirds of a century ago. Gay Street was good to that company for most of that time. It would seem fitting that Kimball’s return that favor now.

You’re a jeweler, Kimball’s. Build your own clock of a more appropriate design and on a more suitable scale for your new Bearden store. Downtown Knoxville, indeed the whole city, would surely appreciate the gesture.

July 1, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 27 © 2004 Metro Pulse