According to a Transport Canada study on the effectiveness of car safety seats, car accidents are the leading cause of unintentional injuries and wrong deaths for children older than one-year-old.

Roughly 10,000 children under the age of 12 are injured in automobile accidents every year.

Encouragingly, there is also other information coming forward that states car safety seats have been proven more effective in saving children’s lives due to car accidents than just plain seat belts.  Researchers in California said the odds of infants and children younger than 12 months dying in a car accident dropped by nearly three-quarters if they were placed in a safety seat, when compared with no restraint.

Our car accident lawyers know that there are many devices that help prevent injuries in car accidents.  Childrens’ injuries are especially important to prevent because children cannot suffer high amounts of trauma without suffering injury or even wrongful death.

The car safety seats also reduced the mortality risk for toddlers, the study’s authors wrote in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

“The findings from this study indicate that child restraints greatly reduce the risk of death among children 3 years and younger involved in severe traffic collisions,” the researchers said.

In the study, a research epidemiologist at the Traffic Safety Center in the department of environmental sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleague analyzed data on children who died in automobile accidents between 1996 and 2005.  More than 6,000 car accidents with complete data were compared with a closely matched group of cars involved in nonfatal accidents.

“Child safety seats are highly effective in reducing the risk of death during severe traffic collisions and generally outperform seat belts,” the study’s authors concluded.  “Parents should be encouraged to use child safety seats in favor of seat belts.”

Experts recommend using age-appropriate child restraints and checking the weight guidelines, which differ between models.

As personal injury lawyers we have to stay up to date with the latest car safety research.  We advocate proper safety here and ask you to use car safety seats on young children in accordance with this study in order to keep your children safe and away from harm’s way.

Call us now at 1-858-551-2090 or click here for a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney after you get into a car accident and find out how we can help you.  We speak English and Spanish, and we look forward to providing advice for your case.   No fee if no recovery.