Preventing Car Accident Injuries to Infants and Toddlers in Spokane

In Spokane, a tragic car accident took the life of a young mother a block away from her home. KREM reported on the accident, which occurred when the woman's car was hit by a driver with a suspended license. While this young woman died in the accident, the 16-month-old baby also in the car was able to survive the crash. 

KREM reports that the infant survived thanks to the high quality car seat that she was secured in. Her mother had reportedly spent hours shopping for the car seat, which was time well spent considering it allowed this child's life to be saved.

Car seats matter a lot in keeping infants and toddlers safe from collisions. Unfortunately, accidents can still happen and sometimes babies and toddlers don't survive or are badly hurt, even when parents have the best car seat possible.

If drivers are irresponsible and cause collisions to occur, the impact may be fatal in certain tragic cases. These drivers must be held accountable for the harm they cause.

How can Parents Keep Their Children Safe from Car Accidents?

For parents who want to keep kids safe in case of a car accident, shopping for a good car seat like the Spokane mother did is a good first step.  For young infants, rear-facing seats are typically recommended. Parents.com also indicates that most kids should be kept in a booster seat until they are around eight years old.

If parents use a car seat, the chances of an infant dying in a car accident are reduced by 71 percent, according to CBS. For toddlers, the chances of dying in a car accident are reduced by 54 percent by car seat use. Unfortunately, since older kids are typically not put into booster seats for long enough, their chances of being killed are greater. Parents.com reports that more kids ages four to eight die in car accidents than kids under four due to reduced use of booster seats.

While car seat use is important, a lot of parents do not use car seats properly and this can reduce their effectiveness in protecting infants and toddlers. Forbes published information a troubling study showing the extent of problems with car seat use.

According to the study, a full 95 percent of parents of newborn babies made errors in either how the car seat was installed, how the infant was positioned in the car seat, or both. Of the five percent of families who were able to use the car seat successfully, most had older kids.

When parents made errors, they typically made lots of them. Half the parents who had made mistakes in car seat use made at least five errors in securing their children. Installing and positioning car seats is hard, but parents can get help by visiting their police or fire station where there are often experts who can help to install seats correctly.