An adorable preschool age girl looks away and smiles as her unrecognizable mother buckles her into her car seat.

Reducing Your Child’s Risk of Injury With Proper Car Seat Safety

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By Yosi Yahoudai
Founder and Managing Partner

Personal injury attorneys get a bad and unwarranted reputation for hoping bad things happen to good people in order to get a paycheck. This could not be further from the truth. As dedicated personal injury attorneys, we know more than others how horrible an accident is and how it can completely change your or others’ lives for the worse. While we pride ourselves on relentlessly seeking justice for those who have been wrongfully injured, our sincere hope is that we never have to represent you.

Unfortunately, personal injury cases are incredibly common, and some of the worst injuries we see are those suffered by children who were not properly secured in their car seats during an accident. Children can suffer an extraordinary amount of harm when they are not properly secured in their car seats, including internal bleeding, spinal cord injuries, organ damage, broken bones, whiplash, traumatic brain injuries, and death. You can never predict an accident, but you can minimize the damage your child suffers in an accident by properly securing them in car seats.

A recent study conducted by the Institute for Highway Safety found that almost two children are killed in car accidents every day in the United States – and that a major contributing cause to this is car seats which are not used or installed properly. While some parents may think that it’s not a big deal if a car seat is not installed properly so long as it is installed and functional, the truth is that if ae car seat is not installed properly, it can actually make it more likely that your child is at risk of serious injury or death in the event of an accident. An estimated 70-85% of child safety seats in the United States are not properly installed, meaning the potential that your child or the child of someone you love to be injured or killed in an accident is incredibly high.

These injuries can be prevented, and like many states California has specific car seat laws that provide individuals with detailed guidance on which kinds of seats are required for which ages:

Children under two must ride in a rear-facing car seat unless they are 40 pounds or more than 40 inches tall. The child must be secured pursuant to the height and weight restrictions as specified by the maker of the car seat.

  • Children who are under eight must be fastened in a car seat or booster seat located in the back seat.
  • Children who have reached eight, or who are 4 foot 9 inches tall, may sit in a booster seat.
  • Passengers over 16 are all subject to California’s mandatory seat belt law.

No one, especially the personal injury attorneys at our firm, ever want to have to handle an injury or wrongful death case of a child that was easily preventable. If your child has been injured or killed in an accident, however, the experienced attorneys at J&Y Law can help. We have handled many cases regarding injured children and combine zealous advocacy with compassion to ensure you and your family get the compensation and justice you deserve. If you have questions about filing a personal injury lawsuit regarding an injured child, contact us today.

 

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About the Author
Yosi Yahoudai is a founder and the managing partner of J&Y. His practice is comprised primarily of cases involving automobile and motorcycle accidents, but he also represents people in premises liability lawsuits, including suits alleging dangerous conditions of public property, third-party criminal conduct, and intentional torts. He also has expertise in cases involving product defects, dog bites, elder abuse, and sexual assault. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California and is admitted to practice in all California State Courts, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. If you have any questions about this article, you can contact Yosi by clicking here.