Keeping Your Child Safe During North Carolina Car Crashes
This week is Child Passenger Safety Week and Governor Bev Purdue is reminding parents and guardians to make sure that their kids are safely secured—whether by a eat belt or child safety seat—when riding in a vehicle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that motor vehicle collisions continue to be the leading cause of fatalities for children in the 3 to 14 group.
Making sure that your child is using a safety restraint system that is free of defects, properly installed, and used correctly can save their life. According to the NHTSA, use of a child safety seats can lower an infant’s fatality risk in a car crash by 71%. Toddlers’ risk of fatal injury can go down by 54% when they too are properly secured in a child safety restraint system. Older children see their fatality risk lowered significantly too when they use seat belts correctly.
Unfortunately, according to the NHTSA three out of every four car seats used are not installed correctly—and this error can prove deadly. Sometimes, improper installation will occur because a parent or guardian failed to read the instructions that come with the product. That said, it is the manufacturer’s responsibility to make sure that their child safety restraint products have no defects, include any necessary warnings, and come with the proper instructions for installation and use. They can be held liable for North Carolina products liability if injuries or deaths result from negligence on their part.
As part of Child Passenger Safety week, Safe Kids North Carolina Coalitions will hold child passenger safety clinics. They are also offering low-cost safety seats to recipients that qualify. September 25 is National Seat Check Saturday. If you go to a safety seat inspection site near you, an inspector will check your child’s safety seat for free.
In 2009, 1,314 kids in the 14 and under age group died in US traffic crashes. 179,000 of them suffered traffic crash injuries.
Our Charlotte, North Carolina car accident law firm represent families whose children were injured in motor vehicle crashes because a motorist, an automaker, a child safety seat manufacturer, a seat belt maker, or another party was liable for personal injury, products liability, or wrongful death.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Unveils New Data and Urges Parents to Install Proper Safety Seats During Child Passenger Safety Week, NHTSA, September 23, 2010
Children: Traffic Safety Facts 2009 Data, NHTSA (PDF)
North Carolina Holds Child Passenger Safety Week, GovMonitor, September 21, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Child Safety, NHTSA
SafeKids North Carolina
