Child Car Seats
06/07/2009Child Injuries – Car Accident Prevention & Seat Belts
To help reduce child injuries in car accidents the most obvious is to drive more carefully and reduce speed. However a you cannot control other car users who may not be as careful.
Children are more prone to injuries than adults. This is because children are smaller, fragile and have less life experiences. The shock of being involved in an accident involving a child injury can be traumatic. Children are less prepared. They are prone to injury in a car, can be thrown around during a collision especially if they have not been provided a child seat, or if there is a child seat, it has not been fitted properly. Child injuries can devastate a child’s life and have long lasting child injuries trauma.
Causes of Child Injuries in Car Accidents
Below are some common causes of chid injuries in a motor car
- Failure to install and use seat belts in a car can lead to greater child injuries. A parent has to be aware that most seat belts are designed for average adults and may not fit properly to a small child. It is important that the child is placed in a child seat or child booster seat to ensure greater protection and to lessen or avoid child injuries.
- Failure to install child seats or child booster seats correctly leading to child injuries. – Also ensure that the correct child seats are fitted correctly and facing correctly forward/backward as designed.
- Never seat Children close to airbags as this may cause child injuries.
- Never place a child on an adults lap. A child is in danger as the seat belt in unlikely to hold the child safely in the event of a car crash. The result could be severe child injuries or even fatal child injuries.
- A child must at all times be seated correctly and never be left to stand or roam around in a car otherwise this could result in the child being thrown around in car causing severe child injuries or even fatal child injuries.
Some Good News About Child Injuries
The number of children under 12 injured in car accidents in Great Britain fell by more than 1,000 in the first full year since the introduction of the new car seat law, according to The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
This is proof that the legislation introduced in 2006 was working and helping to reduce child injuries. The New law was made it compulsory for children under 12 and below 4ft 5in (1.35m) tall to use child car seats or booster seats. In 2005, 7,033, there were child injuries under 12 in cars, and 326 of were killed or seriously injured. In 2007 the number of child injuries had fallen to 5,927, with 271 killed or seriously injured.
Child Injuries Caused by Seat Belts
Whilst it is well settled that the wearing of seat belts in motor vehicles to adults and children can reduce child injuries nevertheless there is evidence that child injuries can be caused by the use of the seat belts if not fitted correctly.
Medical experts have to be particularly wary of child injuries caused by a seat belts to the spinal cord which injuries may not always be apparent.
According to Temple University see reporting Web Site
“Unless physicians are diligent, spinal-cord injuries are hard to diagnose in children. In the event of a car accident, seat belt injuries such as bruising and tenderness should warrant a search for other injuries, including spinal-cord injury, vertebral fractures and intra-abdominal injuries. If spinal-cord injury is missed or not diagnosed early, the consequences can be devastating,” said Harsh Grewal, M.D., in a report published in August issue of the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine.
Car accidents, are the most common cause of child injuries and death and are also the most common cause of spinal cord injury in children. In general, seat belts and safety restraints should be adjusted according to age and weight.
Summary of Seat Belt Laws
You must wear a seat belt if one is fitted. The driver is liable to prosecution if a child under 14 years does not wear a seat belt.
- You must not carry an unrestrained child in the front seat of a vehicle – (help reduce child injuries).
- Children under three years travelling in the front seat of any vehicle must be carried in an appropriate child restraint. The adult belt may not be used alone – (help reduce child injuries).
- If an appropriate child restraint is fitted in the front, but not in the rear, children under three must use that restraint – (help reduce child injuries).
- If an appropriate child restraint or seatbelt is available in the front, but not in the rear, children between 3 and 11 and under 1.5m in height must use the front seat restraint or seat belt – (help reduce child injuries).
Calculating Child Injuries Compensation
CLICK HERE for Child Injuries to Head and Facial Injuries
CLICK HERE for Child Injuries to Back, Neck, Body & Internal Organs
CLICK HERE for Child Injuries to Upper Limbs – Arms, hands, fingers
CLICK HERE for Child Injuries to Lower Limbs – Legs, knees, ankles, feet, foot, toes
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