Defective Car Seats, California Child Car Seat Law And How A Team Of California Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help

A defective product injury is bad enough at the best of times, but when the product that is designed to protect, injures a child then you need to call upon the services of an experienced team of California personal injury attorneys who specialize in dealing with defective product injuries.

There is no getting away from it, child car seats and their proper use, do save lives. Vehicle accidents are the number one cause of unintentional fatalities in children under 14. For younger children, keeping them restrained whilst in a moving vehicle by use of a booster/car seat is certainly one way to reduce this risk. It is no wonder then that parents rely on these to protect their children when travelling. However what if the product that you have put faith in causes injury to your child?

A California personal injury lawyer explains that in the state of California there is a new law being passed through the senate (under bill 949) stating that booster seats are to be compulsory for children of 7 years of age and under. Previous to this, the law in California stated that booster seats were mandatory for children aged 6 and under, or for children who weighed 60lbs or less regardless of age. This new law has extended that age by one year and to include any child under the height of 4ft 9''. The reason for this law is that seat belts, although excellent at restraining, are in fact designed with adults in mind. So whilst a child may be restrained at the abdomen, they may not be at the point of the hip where the lap belt crosses the body, thus rendering the safety belt useless. What a booster seat does is to raise the child up off the seat so that the seat belt fits where it should. To add to this, according to the NHTSA children are less likely by around 45% to be injured in an impact if they are contained within a booster seat as opposed to just a safety belt.

This is clearly a welcoming bill, but it will only work if the booster seats themselves are safe, and this is where the problem lies. Clearly all booster seats have to be safety tested before they can be sold, however the tests carried out by the federal government are, some say, simply not rigorous enough. For example, recent tests carried out by a well-known consumer report group say that they tested 12 car child seats in a 35 mph crash (this is only 5 mph faster than that of the federal government testing of 30 mph). However simply by impacting at an extra 5 mph, the tests revealed that only two out of the twelve (The Baby Trend flex Lock, and the Graco snug ride with EPS) survived the testing unscathed. The others were unfortunately either mangled, rotated or managed to slip off their bases. If your child has suffered an injury because of a defective car seat, then it is imperative that you call upon the services of a personal injury attorney California.

Other manufacturing defects can include:

• Flammable materials
• Construction weaknesses
• Defective safety harness
• Shell/base separation
• Accidental/sudden release

A skilled California personal injury attorney will have the financial backing and indeed the know how to be able to investigate such a claim and as a result if a problem did lie with the manufacturing process, then the lawyer can look to seek damages directly from the company. The right team of lawyers will fight your corner every step of the way to make sure that you get the compensation that you deserve.

Personal injury accidents involving children are particularly distressing for all concerned. So whether your child was injured in a car seat that was due a product recall, or because of a latch system failure, be rest assured that hiring a team of California personal injury lawyers who understand defective product law is the best thing that you can do.