People are just realising the true meaning of the ‘baby on board’ car sign & mums are horrified
‘BABY on board’ stickers seem to be all over the U.K.'s roads, and you’ve likely spent many a traffic jam staring at one attached to the car in front of you.
You may even have one of your own!
A quick Google search will produce a wide range of cute options - from miniature football kits to Disney-themed designs with the famous phrase printed across the front.
But parents have been gobsmacked to hear rumours of one of the horrifying reasons these signs exist - and apparently it’s not just to alert other drivers to your precious cargo.
One Redditor took to the forum to ask: “Serious question:
What is the point of those 'baby on board' stickers some people have on their cars?”
The answers were chilling.
Read More Fabulous News
One user replied: “If they're in an accident the emergency services know to look for an infant.”
While another contributor echoed: “If they get into a car crash the paramedics know that there's a baby on board.”
The theory is that in the horrifying event of a road traffic collision, the sign will alert emergency services to the presence of an infant nearby.
A much more sinister reason than the commonly-accepted idea that they politely request other road users to drive carefully, or be more patient.
Most read in Fabulous
TikTokker @Pentagrammotorsport posted a video warning viewers: "Are you using the 'Baby on board' sign wrong?
"Do you realise how these things are supposed to work?
"This isn't a sign to other road users to tell them 'my driving might not be up to standard because I might be slightly distracted.'
"This is a sign to the emergency services.
"If they find your car crashed, if they find you passed out in the car, if they find your car's rolled down a bank, this is the sign that they need to stay at the scene and look and find the baby that was on board.
"That's the purpose of this sign."
One commenter replied: "Paramedic here, genuinely makes my heart sink seeing these badges at RTCs, especially when you're frantically searching for a missing baby only for it to turn up perfectly fine at home with someone else."
Another viewer replied: "My driving instructor told me this."
Speaking on the confusion over the real use of the signs, Car insurance company, Go Girl, said: “A baby on board sign is there to tell other road users that you’ve got a baby in the car.
“They are also used to alert the emergency services that there might be a child in the vehicle who is unable to unbuckle and free themselves after an accident or collision."
But opinions online are divided on whether this is the real purpose of the signs, or whether it has become a widely-accepted urban myth.
Replying to a thread on Mumsnet, user @Bikerunski said: “A friend of mine is a fireman who attends RTAs .
“He says the signs make no difference to the order in which car wrecks are searched.
“Driver's seat first, as there will always be a driver.
“Then, usually, back seats next, as this is where there are likely to be children, then passenger seat.
“He says the signs are fairly pointless, as the windows usually shatter in a big crash and the signs fall off.”
According to Safety 1st, the company who founded the signs, the idea behind the 'Baby on board' sign was to 'encourage drivers to use caution when approaching cars with younger passengers'.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
So although it seems the original purpose of the signs was to encourage more considerate driving around you, they could still benefit you or your child in the awful event of an accident.
The history of the Baby on board sign
DO you know how these signs originated?
The commonly-known Baby on board sign was created by Massachusetts, USA, former real estate investor, Michael Lerner.
In 1984, Michael was driving his 18 month old nephew home for the first time. The busy traffic and poor motoring etiquette from tailgating motorists brought home a crushing realisation: “For the first time, I felt like a parent feels when they have a kid in the car,” he said.
Meanwhile, sisters Patricia and Helen Bradley, also from Massachusetts, had seen a version of a safety sign for car windows in Europe, but had limited success in bringing it to the states.
Michael signed a licensing deal for the rights to the product from the sisters and founded the company Safety 1st.
And so the first “Baby on board” sign was produced in 1984, with 10,000 of them sold within the first month.
Demand for the signs grew exponentially, and nine months later the company were selling 500,000 signs a month.