South Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers
After their car slid into a guardrail and ended up landing upside down on top of rocks, the Hamilton family managed to come away with minor injuries and one broken bone.
Medical technicians later told the parents that after car accidents such as theirs, the damage leads them to assuming any children inside are dead.
However, the Hamilton children were tucked away safely in their car seats, which were properly installed and selected accordingly to each child’s respective age. Anne Hamilton, who is trained in proper child seat installation, was convinced her car seats were the life-saving factor as only one of her three daughters sustained an injury from the accident.
“I know that their properly used child seats really did save their lives,” Hamilton said. “If we were going by the bare minimum of the law, I don’t want to think about what would have happened.”
The Hamilton’s were on their way to visit friends when the accident occurred. The parents and children suffered mostly cuts, bruises and road burn. The worst of the injuries suffered by the 4-year-old who came out of the accident with a broken leg and badly cut foot.
Research from Safe Kids USA indicates that child seats are not being used correctly, as only 30 percent are using the tether straps to keep the tops of child seats and heads secure in a crash. Many parents are also not using the appropriate seat for their child’s age.
Though child seat education needs to be implemented, the death rate for children ages 3-14 in car crashes is actually in decline, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
When child seats are installed and used correctly, the risk of death for infants’ decreases by 71%, and 54% for toddles. NHTSA reports that 59% less likely to be injured in a booster seat than if they were using only seat belts.
American Academy of Pediatrics and Safe Kids recommend that children stay in rear-facing vehicles until they are two. Safe Kids does note that parents are doing better at keeping kids rear facing but more education still needs to be done.
Most concerning is the low rate of tether strap usage, as many parents tend to default to using seatbelts to secure their child seat.
Both the tether strap and seatbelts are effective safety measures only if they’re used correctly. Car seat safety is possible only when parents and caregivers know how to properly install the seat and use the correct one for their child’s size and weight.
The LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system was implemented in the late 1990s to make car seats easier to install by getting rid of the need for seat belts. This convenience factor works, however, many small and midsize cars only have LATCH accommodations in seating closest to the doors, when the middle seat is considered the safest. LATCH anchors are also advised to not be used for children who weight more than 48 pounds.
Better use of the LATCH anchors and ways to better educate consumers are being implemented to increase the safety rates for child seats.
Safety advocates advice the purchasing or use of second-hand safety seats as their effectiveness may have been lost or damaged as a result of a previous accident.
