Safe driving and emergencies
You have to run into a shop for a few minutes. Under what condition may you leave your five-year-old in the car?
- Only if someone at least 12 years old stays with them. Correct answer
- Only if you leave a window slightly open.
- Only if the child is secured in a child passenger restraint system.
Why
The line the handbook draws is a person, not a length of time or a precaution. Leaving a child of six or younger alone in a vehicle is illegal, and the only thing that stops the child counting as alone is someone at least 12 watching over them. Leaving a window slightly open changes nothing, and the handbook says so in as many words: the temperature inside a parked vehicle can rise rapidly in the sun even if a window is left slightly open, and the same warning covers animals. A correctly fitted child passenger restraint system is required whenever the child rides with you, but a restraint is not supervision and it does not make leaving them behind lawful.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025). The correct answer is Only if someone at least 12 years old stays with them..
- Section 8. Safe Driving › Protect Yourself and Your Passengers › Unattended Children and Pets , page 67
- Section 8. Safe Driving › Protect Yourself and Your Passengers › Unattended Children and Pets , page 67
- Section 8. Safe Driving › Protect Yourself and Your Passengers › Child Restraint System and Safety Seats , page 66