Fetal Fatalities

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyer I don’t think that I can repeat myself enough when I remind my readers that the use of safety belts, child restraint safety seats and child booster seats are required by Tennessee law. These laws can help save you and your passenger’s 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. Officers can stop and ticket drivers solely for disobeying Seatbelt and Child Restraint Device (CRD) .

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 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. 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.

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. All child passenger restraint systems (car seats and booster seats) referenced above must meet federal motor vehicle safety standards and be used consistently with the manufacturer’s and the vehicle’s instructions.

According to a recent article on the website of Nashville TV station WSMV researchers are now looking into ways to develop better devices to help prevent fetal deaths by making automobile travel safer for expectant mothers. The study being conducted by researchers at Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences in Blacksburg, Va., was reported after the schools recently completed a three-year research project, partly funded by Ford.

There are no official federal statistics kept on the number of fetal deaths in car accidents. It is estimated that 300 to several thousand such deaths occur annually as a result of vehicle crashes, which amounts to about four times the number of victims between infancy and 4 years old. Overall, about 27,000 vehicle occupants died in car crashes in 2008, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and auto accidents are the single largest cause of death for pregnant women.

If you or a loved one experiences a fetal death in a Tennessee automobile accident you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.