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Ivanka Trump's, Jared Kushner's children appear to enter motorcade without car seats

Posted at 8:01 PM, Mar 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-03 20:01:26-05

(CNN) -- As Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and their three young children joined President Donald Trump for a weekend trip to Palm Beach, Florida, one thing appeared to missing from the presidential motorcade: car seats.

After deplaning Air Force One, Ivanka Trump boarded the limo, holding Theodore, 11 months, on her lap, and waving to the crowd assembled at the airport before the motorcade headed to Mar-a-Lago. Daughter Arabella, 5, and son Joseph, 3, both stood up and sat down inside the limousine multiple times before it drove away.

Car seats and booster seats are required by law for each of the Kushner children, according to Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

"Children ages 0-3, such restraint devices must be a separate carrier or a vehicle manufacturer's integrated child seat," the agency's website reads. "Children ages 4-5, the restraint device should be a separate carrier, an integrated child seat or a child booster seat."

The American Academy of Pediatrics also strongly recommends car seat and boost seat use.

" One of the most important jobs you have as a parent is keeping your child safe when riding in a vehicle," the organization says on its website. "Each year, thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes. Proper use of car seats helps keep children safe."

The White House and the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

 

 

 

Trump and Kushner fastened Arabella and Joseph into car seats during the inaugural parade in January.

The Secret Service-driven presidential limousine, known as "the Beast," is certainly safer than the average vehicle.

"The presidential vehicle is built to precise and special specifications, undergoes extreme testing and development, and also incorporates many of the top aspects of Cadillac's 'regular' cars -- such as signature design, hand-cut-and-sewn interiors, etc.," General Motors' spokeswoman Joanne Krell told CNN when the new presidential fleet was introduced in 2009.

But even Secret Service motorcades can experience accidents: The bus carrying Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine's press corps crashed into a police vehicle at a high speed on a Florida highway days before the election.

Per protocol, the bus kept driving.

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