Philadelphia Injury Attorney Blog

It was the first time that the Institute issued evaluations for booster seats. Lund stated that they chose not to review crash protection because the seats simply elevate children so lap and shoulder belts are well positioned to restrain them. Dr. Kristy Arbogast, who researches child passenger safety issues at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia stated that parents should not interpret the evaluations to mean that poorly rated seats are not effective. “The biggest service that this would do is to encourage people to move out of booster seats because we know they are an effective restraint and we know they reduce the risk of injury and fatality”, said Arbogast. The government recommends car seats for children up to 40 lbs. and booster seats for children over 40 lbs. until they are 8 years old or 4' 9" tall. All children should ride in the back seat until age 13. For more information the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issues ratings for child seats on its website at (www.safercar.gov). On the internet, you may also research findings from the Institute for Highway Safety (www.iihs.org). Also please see my article of September 29, 2008 entitled “Child Booster Seat and Restraint Use in the United States is Higher Than Ever According to a Report Released on September 22, 2008 by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Association for Automobile Manufacturers”.

As I previously noted in my articles, when you place your child in a safety seat, you expect and trust the manufacturers designed a safe seat that will protect your child in the case of an accident. Unfortunately, results indicate that this is not always the case. Once again, often we find that many manufacturers place profits over safety and design child safety seats according to Federal standards which are really minimum standards. Often there are design defects that are not revealed during testing and many times the testing is not done or is not done under real world conditions. Effectively designed child seats have lead to many injuries and deaths which were easily preventable. When a child seat does not operate properly or is designed improperly, the ineffectiveness or design defect can be more dangerous than failing to use the seat itself, as it can cause additional injuries for the child or fail to protect the child from serious harm or death.

Following are the possible defects that may occur: child seat clip defects, child seat buckle defects, child seat detachment defects, improper padding on child seats, weak outer-protective and inner-protective shell, flammable material, defective handles, base/self separation and deficient construction, sudden release due to defective harnessing system, and unanticipated rotation.

If your child or a child that you know was injured as a result of a defective child car seat, or if your child has been injured in a car accident and you believe that their child safety seat played a role in that injury, then you may very well have a legal case to make. Pennsylvania child safety seat lawsuits can often provide financial and legal assistance to parents who have suffered through the injury or death of their child. These lawsuits can insure that the seat makers do not repeat their hazardous behavior. Settlements from these lawsuits can insure that all medical bills, property damage, pain and suffering, expenses and other costs are taken care of for the family involved. Contact the defective child seat attorneys at the Philadelphia personal injury firm of Reiff & Bily for a free no obligation consultation and learn about your rights when it comes to product liability and child safety seats at 1-800-421-9595 or www.reiffandbily.com.