Every hour, 150 children up to age 19 are treated in emergency rooms for injuries from car accidents, and wrongful deaths of children ages 5 to 19 are caused by car accidents than any other type of injury.

With these car accident statistics in mind, we would like to — as car accident lawyers — inform drivers about dangers of traveling on the roadways, but we also want to educate parents about how to protect their children who may be traveling in cars with them.

Booster seats used by parents for their children can prevent injury and wrongful death in the event of a car accident.

In the United States, almost 1,800 children under the age of 15 were killed and 282,000 were injured in car accidents in 1997.  Those numbers have remained steady since then.  Among 5 to 9-year-old passengers, 46 percent of those involved in wrongful death car crashes were not restrained.

Children are smaller and are more vulnerable to injury in car accidents.  The amount of force generated by a car accident can cause serious injury such as whiplash or other spinal cord injuries causing paralysis (i.e. paraplegia & quadriplegia).

Booster seats utilized by children cut the chance of wrongful death because of car accidents by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers ages 1 to 4-years-old.  Belt-positioning booster seats are designed to raise children up on the car seat so the lap/shoulder belt fits correctly.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends parents to put their children in child safety seats at all times.  Babies should be placed in rear facing seats until they are at least a year old and weigh 20 lbs., front-facing car seats until they are at least 4-years-old or weigh 40 lbs. and booster seats from about ages 4 to 8 (or 4’9″ tall).

Overall, for children younger than 16-years-0ld, riding in the back seat causes a 40 percent reduction in the risk of serious injury in car accidents.  As a parent, if you could do something to cut the risk of injury or wrongful death from a car accident almost in half, is it not worth the money the booster seat costs?

As car accident attorneys, we believe the investment and use of a booster seat can be very beneficial during a trip to grandma’s house (for example).  If a car accident happens while you are driving there, an injury or wrongful death can diminish the quality of life of a child or end the life of a child altogether.

Please contact us for a FREE CONSULTATION with an experienced personal injury lawyer — in either English or Spanish — at (800) 655-6585 or click here to submit your case for a Free Review.