It\’s a frightening statistic that parents fear most. Every year thousands of children are killed in motor vehicle crashes. In fact, it\’s the leading cause of death among children in the United States. To prevent this kind of tragedy, parents purchase car seats to keep their children safe. Statistics show us that by putting kids in age as well as size appropriate car seats, they significantly cuts down on serious and even fatal injuries.
But sometimes, despite parents being responsible and putting their children in car seats, they find themselves the owners of defective child products, including child car seats, some of which have been recalled. In just the last few years alone, hundreds of thousands of infant and child car seats were recalled for safety reasons. Handles were found to be defective possibly causing children to fall while being carried and defective mounting brackets put children at risk of injury during a crash.
As a parent, how can you tell if a child seat is safe and what should you do if the child car seat you purchased is recalled? The short answer is parents must strive to be as informed as possible and do some research. If your child\’s seat is recalled, many times the problems that led to the recall can be fixed without even having to send the product back. Many time manufacturers will send replacement parts, free of charge to remedy the issues.
Proper use and installation of a booster seat or child car seat is critical. Recently almost 3,500 vehicles using child car seats were observed and 72% of them were found to be installed improperly. This all-to-common mistake puts children at unnecessary risk of injury.
As a parent, when you walk into a store you are inundated with a host of products geared toward your infant, toddler, older child or teenager. All these products should come with a reasonable expectation of safety. Your child\’s car seat is no exception, so it\’s important to know the product\’s safety history especially if it\’s been used before.
While it\’s usually not a bad idea to pinch pennies and purchase pre-owned items, that\’s not always the safest bet when it comes to child car seats. Many thrift stores, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, have been found to sell seats that have been previously recalled due to safety concerns.
While many critical steps towards child safety have been taken by both the government and retailers in recent years, many children unfortunately are still injured every day.
If your child has suffered an injury during an auto accident and was properly riding in a child car seat, contact infant and child car seat injury attorney Jeffrey Killino at 1-877-875-2927 today. As defective infant and child car seat lawyers, they can offer you a free consultation on whether you may file a claim against a child car seat manufacturer.