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While most vehicles come equipped with safety features designed to save lives, children riding in vehicles must be secured in an approved car seat. The right car seat, correctly installed in your vehicle, provides important protection for small children should you be involved in a Detroit car accident.
We have put together this basic car seat safety guide to help parents gain a better understanding about both booster and car seats. These are important pieces of equipment, and our goal is to help parents keep their babies and children as safe as possible while on the roads and streets in the Detroit metro area.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 638 children under the age of 13 were killed, and another 127,250 injured in motor vehicle accidents during 2013. Of those children who lost their lives, more than a third were not buckled in at the time of the crash. In fact, a CDC study indicated that during the course of 1 year, more than 618,000 children between the ages of 0-12 rode in a motor vehicle without a car seat, booster seat, or seatbelt.
Because car seats have been shown to reduce the risk of infant death by approximately 71%, and toddler fatalities by 54%, it’s critically important to keep your child safely secured in a government-approved car seat. Booster seats significantly improve a child’s chances of avoiding serious injury should you be involved in a collision. When a child between 4 and 8 years of age is secured in a booster seat, it reduces the risk of serious injury by about 45%.
One of the most common questions parents ask is what type of car seat offers the best protection. Michigan car seat laws require children under the age of 4 to ride in a car seat in the back seat of a vehicle. If a child is in a rear-facing car seat, it must be placed in the front seat of a vehicle and the passenger side airbag must be deactivated. Until a child is 8 years old or 4’9″, he or she is required by law to be safely secured in either a car seat or booster seat.
This breakdown helps make it clear:
A few other car seat safety tips include:
Carefully read the installation instructions for the car seat or booster seat and follow all instructions to the letter. Look at training videos if you run into any problems with the installation instructions.
Parents who are uncertain as to whether or not their child’s car seat has been properly installed can use the Parents Central search engine to find a child car seat inspection station nearest them. Schedule an appointment and visit a child car seat inspection station to make sure it is properly installed.
If your child was injured in a car accident caused by another driver, contact Goodman Acker, P.C., to schedule your free case review with a skilled Detroit auto accident lawyer.
We have been helping accident injury victims in Michigan win the maximum settlement for their injuries for 25+ years.
Take a look at what some of our previous clients have to say about the high caliber of the services we provide.
If you have been wrongly injured, we would be happy to review the specific details of your case to determine how we can help.