Have you been in an auto accident and had a defective child restraint?
Most people do not know how to properly install car seats for children or infants. An astounding 80% of car seats are improperly installed due to poor instructions provided with the car seat. If you’ve ever purchased a car seat, you may have noticed that the instruction manuals are too complicated or unclear lead to improper installation resulting in car seat failure, child injury and death.
Defects
Using a car seat for a child that is improperly installed can actually be worse than not having a car seat at all. Common car seat failures include:
- Bad structural design
- Shoulder straps that come unclip or come loose in an accident
- Where the seat belt connects the car seat breaks or bends, allowing the seat to move forward
- Inadequate support allows child to slip down in car seat during accident
- Separation of seat from base, allowing the seat to launch
- Buckle failure
- Harness failure
- Padding inadequate to provide protection from injury
If there is a defects in a child car seat, a child may be held too loosely and can be thrown around in the seat, striking parts of the seat and the interior of the vehicle. Even worse, it can mean full ejection from the seat. An accident doesn’t even need to happen–injuries caused by a defective car seat can occur during sudden braking of swerving to avoid an accident.
Injuries
Car seats for children are designed and marketed as a safety device. However, a defective car seat can cause the injuries they are meant to prevent. Injuries caused by defective car seats include:
- Broken bones and fractures
- Neck injury
- Back injury
- Torn spinal cord
- Skull fractures
- Brian Injury
- Internal injuries
- Lacerations
- Bruising
- Death
Car Seat/Carriers
Most car seat models allow you to use them as carriers, however, just like car seats they have been recalled due to handle failure which allows the seat to flip when being used throwing the baby out. Injuries caused by falling from these carriers have included:
- Skull fractures
- Concussions
- Bruises
- Cuts
- Scrapes
Car seat carriers can give people a false sense of security. Hundreds of babies have been injured by carriers with defective handles. The permanent injury or death of a child is the worst tragedy a parent can face. Grief and anger are only made worse when the injury was caused by a device which should have kept the child safe. The attorneys at Mainor Wirth have years of legal experience and a long track record of successful verdicts and settlements for our clients.
