Auto Accident Involving a Child Passenger
As a law firm that focuses on personal injury and wrongful death auto accidents, we’ve seen just about every type of crash imaginable and the injuries that go with them. After all these years in practice, it’s still extremely difficult to see babies and young children hurt, disabled, and even killed in car crashes. Yet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) auto accidents remain a leading cause of death for our children. Even worse, many of these deaths are preventable. *source
While the number of deaths from crashes and collisions has decreased over the past ten years, the number of children who’ve died in these accidents remains, unfortunately, high. In fact, over the past decade, motor vehicle accidents have claimed the lives of more than 9,000 children under the age of 12. Sadly, over 650 were killed in accidents in 2011 alone, and many more suffered injuries.
Head injuries are one of the most common injury types suffered by young children in crashes. The sheer force of impact can be enough to jar a young child’s brain back and forth inside the skull, creating the some of the same injuries as seen in shaken baby syndrome. These types of injuries can be difficult to diagnose and even harder to treat. Sometimes, the damage is severe, and the young child is left with developmental delays, psychological disorders, and even paralysis.
How You Can Help
Though car seats and seat belts can’t protect you and your children from all types of injuries, they are proven to reduce death and injury when used correctly, especially when placed in the back seat, where there is less chance of injury in a crash.
Current guidelines suggest that parents buckle newborns in rear facing car seats and continue to use the rear-facing seat until the child reaches the height or weight limit for that seat (generally between the ages of 2 and 3).
When the child outgrows the rear-facing seat, they should be buckled into a forward-facing car seat until they reach the height or weight limit for that seat, (at least until the age of 5).
The child can be buckled into a booster seat in the back seat of the vehicle until the child reaches 57 inches tall, the height at which seat belts begin to fit properly. The child should be buckled into the back seat of the vehicle until they reach at least the age of 12.
Have You Been Injured in a Car Accident? Call Us Today!
If you’ve been injured in a car accident or lost a loved one in a fatal crash, you need a dedicated team of attorneys and legal professionals fighting for your rights. Our attorneys have a long and proven record of helping the victims of car accidents get the compensation they deserve.
Call us today if you or a loved one were injured in
- Commercial bus crashes
- School bus accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Truck crashes
- Motorcycle collisions
- Commercial vehicle accidents
- Semi-truck crashes
We’ll fight insurance companies, negligent operators, and reckless drivers to get you the maximum compensation you deserve.