An Attorney for Defective Child Safety Seats
Having a child in an approved and current car seat is one of the most effective ways to keep children safe when riding in a vehicle. According to the CDC, child safety seats reduce the risk of death in passenger cars by 71 percent for infants and by 54 percent for toddlers ages 1 to 4 years old. For older children, booster seats have much the same result, with injury risk being reduced by 59 percent for children ages 4 to 7.
Is Your Child’s Car Seat Safe?
Given the safety stats surrounding child car seats, seating children in these protective seats has become standard practice throughout the country. But these seats can still fail, causing severe injury or worse to a child. The reasons can be due to defective child seats, recalled child seats, expired child seats, or other reasons.
If your child has been injured or killed in a car accident due to a defective child safety seat, get an attorney involved early in the process. Car seat manufacturers and insurance companies will not give you the voice you need when an accident happens.
Defective Child Safety Seats
One of the most common and encompassing issues surrounding faulty child safety seats includes defects in the seats themselves. Some of the most common defects include:
- Defective latches
- Defective handles
- Faulty general construction
- Improper shell design
- Improper use of flammable materials
Like many products, child safety seats undergo recalls due to defects that are discovered after production and distribution. The child car seat manufacturers must report the safety issue and fix the problem at no cost. This may require having the car seat sent back to the manufacturer. If the part is sent to the consumer, they often have to use the recalled safety seat while waiting for the new part.
Unfortunately, many child safety seats recalls come after a child has already been injured. Multiple injury cases may have happened to spur the defect, and your child was affected by this before the recall being issued. If this has happened to you, call an experienced product liability attorney.
Unfortunately, many child safety seat recalls come after a child has already been injured.
It can be challenging to identify a recalled child safety seat. To keep up on the recalls and to help ensure that your child’s seat is safe, follow these steps:
- Identify the name of the seat’s manufacturer
- Identify your specific model number
- Look up the recall list
- If your model is on the list, compare the dates of recall with your manufacture date
- Contact the manufacturer on the next steps
When acquiring a car seat, you also need to know the origins and if the car seat is expired. Every seat has an expiration date on the bottom. After this date, the car seat is not recommended for use.
Unless you bought the car seat new or have received it from a relative and know the full safety record, it is impossible to tell if your seat is safe. You may know if the seat has been recalled or not and if the expiration date has not expired, but if it was in an accident previously or had some other hazardous incident, it may no longer be safe to use.
A Car Seat Accident Attorney for You
Bighorn Law is an experienced product liability attorney specializing in car accidents and product liability surrounding car accidents. Attorneys at the firm have worked with defective car seat accident cases and are ready to represent and fight for your family. We know the pain that an accident involving your child can cause you. We want to make sure that you have someone fighting for you that won’t give up until you win.
Call us today at (702) 333-1111.