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The Use of Car Seats and Booster Seats to Prevent Injuries in Accidents

 

Los Angeles personal injury lawyers stress the use of car seats and booster seats to prevent injuries to children in the event of an accident.  However, even car seats and booster seats that are approved by federal regulatory agencies may not always prevent injuries in an accident.  That’s because car seats for small infants are tested for their effectiveness only in front impact accidents, while those for heavier children are not held up many regulations at all.

Just about every parent knows that securing a child in an appropriate infant car seat is extremely important to protect the child from injuries in an accident.  There are more than 100 car seat models available on the market, and making a choice can be hard.  Most parents rely on recommendations made by consumer safety organizations on which car seats and booster seats to prevent injuries to use, like Consumer Reports, to make the decision.  However, parents may not be aware that children’s car seat and belt positioning boosters are not completely regulated by federal safety agencies responsible for child custody seats.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is responsible for testing child car safety seats, but the agency tests for car seat safety are extremely limited.  In the case of seats for children who weigh more than 65 pounds, there is no need for manufacturers to design their products according to government safety requirements because there are no tests for the seats.  Car seats that are designed for smaller children and infants are only rated for their effectiveness in preventing injuries in front impact accidents.

According to safety experts, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has failed to develop protections for infants in all kinds of accidents because of failure to develop child-sized crash test dummies.  These dummies can be used to test car seats in side-impact, rollover and rear ender accidents.  Side-impact collisions, rollover crashes and rear ender accidents are some of the most serious accidents, contributing to thousands of injuries every year.  Many of these injured are children.

Most of these children will be injured even though they have been secured in a car safety seat that their parents believed would provide the greatest protection for them.  Unfortunately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has not developed crash test dummies that can be tested in side-impact, rear end and rollover accidents.  The only kind of effectiveness that parents can be relatively sure of is protection in the event of front impact accidents.

Of equal concern to Los Angeles car accident attorneys is the fact that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is unable to conduct car seat tests on seats that are designed for children weighing above 65 pounds.  There is a growing class of children who are overweight in the United States, as the obesity epidemic spreads.  The demand for car seats designed for heavy children is on the increase.  Unfortunately, these are not held to any federal standards, and parents need to be aware of this.

 

 

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