Child Safety Seats Save Lives

As an experienced automobile accident and safety attorney part of my goal with this Blog is to keep drivers up to date about Tennessee highway safety issues. I often write about issues involving children and child safety seats and today’s Blog is about new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

New guidelines for parents say children should ride in rear-facing car seats longer, until they are 2 years old instead of 1.  And some kids should ride in booster seats until age 12.

Both organizations say older children who’ve outgrown front-facing car seats should ride in child booster seats until the lap-shoulder belt fits them. Booster seat or not, children younger than 13 should ride in the back seat. The advice is based on evidence from crashes. For older children, poorly fitting seat belts can cause abdominal and spine injuries in a crash.

Child safety seats reduce fatal injury by 71 percent for infants (less than 1 year old) and by 54 percent for toddlers (1 to 4 years old) in passenger cars. Young children restrained in child safety seats have an 80 percent lower risk of fatal injury than those who are unrestrained.

Tennessee was the first state in the country to pass a Child Passenger Protection Law requiring children to be restrained in child safety seats (car seats and booster seats).

A.  A child under one year old, or any child weighing less than 20 pounds, must be in a child passenger restraint system (car seat) that is facing the rear of the car.

B. Children who are one through three years old, and who weigh more than 20 pounds, must be in a child passenger restraint system that is facing forward.

C. Children who are four through eight years old and whose height is under four feet, nine inches, must be in a belt positioning booster seat system (child booster car seat) and wearing a seatbelt.

These seats should be in the rear seat of the car, if possible. The children can’t make the decision to protect themselves, this is the legal responsibility of the parents. It is also the responsibility of the parents to teach by example.  If you are driving and witness a parent driving without having their child properly restrained it is your duty to notify the authorities. Call 911 is you are in an urban area and *847 in a rural area. Make the call and save a child’s life.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee highway automobile accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident law firm of Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies

Seat Belts Work

The use of safety belts, child restraint safety seats and child booster seats are required by Tennessee law. These can help save you and your passengers’lives in the event of a traffic crash.  Tennessee law enforcement officers can stop drivers and issue citations for failure to observe the seatbelt or child restraint laws.  Tennessee was the first state in the country to pass a Child Passenger Protection Law requiring children to be restrained in child safety seats (car seats and booster seats.

Seat belts and child safety seats help prevent injury five different ways, by:

1. Preventing ejection: Ejection greatly increases the chance of death or serious injury. The chance of being killed in a crash by being ejected from a vehicle is one in eight.  Safety belts virtually eliminate ejection.  The belted driver stays inside the car and is better protected from injury.

2. Shifting crash forces to the strongest parts of the body’s structure.  To get the most benefit from a seat belt, be aware of the following points:

• The lap belt should be worn low over the pelvis with the bottom edge touching the tops of the thighs snugly.

• The shoulder belt should be worn over the shoulder and across the chest, not under the arm and over the abdomen.  Make certain that the shoulder belt is not worn so loosely that it slides off the shoulder.

• Pregnant women should wear the lap belt below the abdomen and the shoulder belt above the belly.

3. Spreading crash forces overa wide area of the body. Safety belts reduce the possibility of injury from “hostile” surfaces inside the car (steering wheel, dashboard, windshield, controls, etc.).  Even if the belted driver collides with some of these surfaces, it happens with much less force and often results in less serious injury.

4. Keeping the body more closely in the “properdriving posture.” The belt keeps the driver “in the driver’s seat.”  The belted driver is better able to deal with emergencies and often avoids more serious trouble.

5. Protecting the head and spinal cord. The belted driver is less likely to be stunned or made unconscious by the crash and is better able to cope with the situation. Research has found that proper use of lap/shoulder belts reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent (for occupants of light trucks, 60 percent and 65 percent respectively)

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney it seems like a “no-brainer” that when we get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle we buckle our seatbelts, but when one monitors automobile accidents around the state like the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s do at Phillip Miller & Associates, we see so many needless serious injuries and deaths that could have been avoided if the driver had simply fastened their seat belt.