In the event of an automobile accident, the one piece of equipment you are trusting to protect your child is the car seat holding your precious cargo. Pasadena personal injury attorneys encounter numerous cases each year involving an improper child seat. A number of factors can affect the safety of the seat you are using. For example, did you know that some child car seats do not have a properly manufactured slot for the automobile’s seat belt to stay in place in an accident, given the amount of force that can be exerted in a collision? The slot may be too flimsy to hold the belt, thus allowing the seat to move.
Among children who are age 5 to age 14, the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration reports the number one cause of death in this group is traffic collisions. In some cases, a malfunctioning or defective child car seat can be to blame. If a family suspects that such an issue may have contributed to the death or injury of their child, they should place a phone call to a Pasadena personal injury attorney right away.
It may be surprising to learn that there are instances where a child’s shoulder strap has come undone or loosened during a wreck and allowed the child to be ejected. Sometimes the harness that is designed to provide pelvic protection for the child is manufactured wrongly, thus permitting the child to unsafely slide down too far in the seat during an accident.
A safety seat for a child is supposed to provide an additional layer of protection within the automobile. If a car seat is defective or malfunctions, however, it can actually be the catalyst for additional, tragic injuries to the child. When a family follows the guidelines given for using a safety seat, it is an even greater tragedy when a defect is to blame for the maiming or death of a child. A Pasadena personal injury lawyer can help determine if a defective safety seat is responsible for your child’s injury or death.