The number one cause of death for children in the United States between one and 16 years old is auto accidents. Even though the child mortality rate from collisions has decreased in recent years due to the increased use of child restraints (car seat, booster seat, and seat belt use), much still needs to be done to protect our most vulnerable population of passengers.

To learn more about your legal rights after an auto accident, contact us today.

Troubling Injury and Death Rates

According to the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 1,400 children under 15 died and 203,000 were injured as the result of motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. in 2005 alone. This is an average of four deaths and 556 injuries each day.
Despite Child Car Seat Use

• The NHTSA is constantly stressing that having children in age-appropriate and body-size-appropriate child car seat or restraints would reduce these death and injury rates by half — indeed, of the children hurt or killed in vehicle crashes in 2005, nearly half were unrestrained. However, this indicates that more than half of those children were in a car seat or restraints when they were injured or killed in a crash.

• More than 20 models of child car seats have been recalled since 1990 for not meeting Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
• Car seats are often difficult to install and use properly, and not all car seats can be used in all vehicles.
• Car seats can be outdated, and after a collision a car seat may not continue to meet safety standards.
• Investigators found that 72% of the 3,500 child restraint systems studied were misused in a way that could increase a child’s risk of injury during a crash. As any parent can tell you, it's not easy to install a car seat at all, let alone being sure that it's installed correctly.
• School buses usually do not have car seats or accessories for car seats such as latches, nor do they have seat belts