You did the research and chose the safest car and safest child safety seat to help your child survive a serious car accident; is there anything else a Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer would advise to help increase the odds that a child survives a serious car accident?

As a Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer with Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. for nearly 25 years, my firm has represented many seriously injured families and we have noticed that everything else being equal, child safety seat placement can play a crucial role in helping a child survive a serious car accident.

While everyone knows they should not place a child safety seat in the front seat, few parents give much thought to the seat location where the child safety seat is placed in the rear seat, often placing the child safety seat behind the driver or front passenger seat since it is typically a little more convenient to place a child in a child safety seat located next to a window as opposed to choosing to place the child safety seat in the middle of the back seat.

Over the years, our Cedar Rapids serious injury law firm has learned that in a serious head-on (or near head-on) accident, or in a severe rear end collision, it is not uncommon for properly seat-belted front passengers’ heads, torsos, and/or arms to lift up and over the seat causing the front passengers’ head and/or arms to make contact with a child sitting in a child safety seat in the backseat.

While this seems astonishing and rather incredible, as a Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer, I have seen too many cases where this has happened. In essence, a front passenger’s body collides with the child’s body in the back seat before the adult in the front seat’s body comes to rest again in the front seat.  This happens so quickly that the front passengers are often unaware that this has occurred until forensic evidence shows, for example, impact marks from a child safety seat (or from a child’s teeth) on the parent’s forehead, etc.

Likewise, in a serious side collision, a child seat placed next to a window in the back seat will subject that child to extreme lateral forces as the side of the car—and side airbags—will collide into the child seat and child potentially causing serious personal injury.

So where should a child be placed to give them the best possible chance of surviving a car accident and minimizing to the extent possible serious injuries in a serious car accident?  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that child-safety seats be anchored in the middle of the back seat to decrease to the extent possible the extent of injury to a child in a serious car accident.  http://www.cdc.gov/features/passengersafety/index.html

This CDC link also gives other valuable information regarding proper child-safety seat and booster seat usage and placement.

And yes, having to buckle a child in a child safety seat in the middle of the backseat (as opposed to a seat next to a window) might be a little less convenient when putting the child into the safety seat or removing them, but such a minor inconvenience to a parent is such a small price to pay to enable a child to have a better chance of surviving a serious car accident.

For nearly 25 years, our Cedar Rapids personal injury law firm does not charge for an initial consultation and we do not charge an attorney fee unless you win or settle your personal injury case. Talk to an attorney now for free and get your questions answered by clicking here.

Disclaimer: The information contained here and throughout our website, and in our printed or other materials, are for general informational purposes only as this information should not be considered to be legal advice concerning your specific case. You should consult an experienced and knowledgeable attorney in this area of law to determine whether the information given in our videos, website, and other materials applies to your specific case as the failure to do so could do significant harm to your case. Please realize this post should not be considered medical advice as you should consult a qualified medical professional for medical advice.  Please be advised there are many more issues or concerns than those listed here, but we have listed some of the more common issues or concerns we’ve seen here. Please remember that our firm does not represent you unless or until we enter into a written fee agreement signed by both you and our firm. Click here for additional disclaimer information.

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