Car Seat Safety May 30, 2009
As an attorney and father of two young children, nothing angers me more than an incorrectly installed car seat. I have seen firsthand how a car accident can wreck so many lives. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reports that car accidents are the leading cause of death among children in the United States, but many of these deaths can be prevented. Placing children in age– and size–appropriate car and booster seats reduces serious and fatal injuries by more than half.
What You Can Do To Keep Your Child Safe:
- Seat all children ages 12 and younger in the back seat and be sure they are properly restrained every time they ride with you–even during those quick trips to CVS, which Staten Island has far too many of.
- Read the instructions to make sure you are properly installing and using the seat. One study found that 73% of nearly 3,500 observed child restraint systems were misused in a way that could increase a child’s risk of injury in an accident.
- Send in your car seat registration card so that the manufacturer can contact you about any recalls. You can also call the NHTSA Auto Safety Hotline at (888) 327–4236 to find out about recalls.
- Replace any car seat that was used during a car accident. They are made of styrofoam that compresses in an accident, making them one-time use only.
- When choosing a car or booster seat, it’s important to find one that is age–and size– appropriate and fits in your car.
- Children should start using a booster seat when they grow out of their child safety seats (usually when they weigh about 40 pounds). They should continue to ride in a booster seat until the shoulder belts in the car fit properly, typically when they are about 4′9″ tall.
- Booster seats have been shown to reduce injury risk by 59% compared to safety belts alone, for children ages 4 to 7.
If you have any question or concerns about the installation of your car seat, stop by your local firehouse and ask for free inspection or use the following link to find a Child Safety Seat Inspection Center near you. On Staten Island, the Staten Island Safety City Learning Center is open Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It could be the most important 10 minutes that you spend.
Frank Dito is a New York Personal Injury attorney specializing in New York real estate law , New York business law, and New York franchise law. You can visit his Law Firm Decker, Decker, Dito and Internicola website by clicking here, download his FREE New York Car Insurance book, or call him at 718-979-4300 or 1-800-310-5520 for a free case analysis.
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Posted Under: Car Accidents, Recreation and Safety Tags: car accident, car seat, child injury, crash, death, Staten Island
Reader Comments
#1
Written By Cecilia Thorfinn on May 30th, 2009 @ 8:28 am
Hello!
Fully agree with you! I for my part mostly travel with
Am curious to hear your perspective on a child safety product I have developed and will put in the market in Q42009: the MummyMug. A hot drink safety solution designed to prevent scalding burns in small children – an accident that at least here in the Netherlands happen over 10,000 per year, and for which over 550 kids have to be operated on (skin grafts) to treat. I am a Mompreneur who wants to put a safety product out there to make it possible for parents out there to continue to enjoy their coffee break, but in a safe and responsible manner. Would much appreciate your feedback, pls look at http://www.mummymug.com. as I also plan to launch in the US. Also on twitter @MummyMug.
Hope to hear from you!
Greetings from the Netherlands!