There is nothing more cherished to a parent than the health, safety, well-being and happiness of a child. Yet, according to statistics from The Journal of Pediatrics, children often fall victim to deadly motor vehicle accidents due to the negligence of a parent. A deeper look at the study shows some alarming trends.
According to the study, 95 percent of parents improperly install car seats in their car for newborns. And 75 percent have the car seats facing the wrong way. Among fatal accidents between 2010 and 2014, approximately 20 percent had children with no restraints or improper restraints. Almost 16 percent of children from those crashes were killed. And 43 percent of those killed were improperly restrained or were unrestrained. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of 2 stay in rear-facing backseat car seats. Throughout the United States, car accidents are the leading cause of injury among children.
Thousands of victims die every year as a result of deadly car crashes throughout the United States, including victims from the Pottsville, Pennsylvania, area. Although the northeast showed the lowest rate of mortality among car accidents, as little as one-third as many as accidents in the south, one fatality is one too many.
Even if a parent takes all the necessary precautions and necessary care to assure that their children are riding safely in their car, accidents still happen, often the result of someone else. For anyone who is injured or who has a family member who was killed in a car accident, the victim or the victim’s family may be entitled to compensation.
Source: Huffington Post, “43 Percent Of Kids Killed in Car Crashes Aren’t Properly Restrained,” Caroline Bologna, May 31, 2017