Car seats very often save the lives of children or protect them from more serious injuries than those they might have sustained had they not been in car seats when traffic accidents occurred. According to some statistics, properly used and non-defective car seats reduce the risk of death to infants who are involved in traffic accidents by seventy-one percent and the risk of death to toddlers between the ages of 1 and 4 by fifty-four percent. For this reason, the use of car seats for young children is required in every state.
When children’s car seats are improperly installed or defectively made, however, they may cause injuries and deaths to infants and children that could have been prevented. If your child has died or suffered a car seat injury due to a defect in a car seat or someone’s negligence, you may be entitled to compensation for the damages you and your child have suffered as a result of your child’s injury or death. Child injury lawyer and car seat injury attorney Jeffrey Killino has extensive experience with all types of child injury and car seat injury cases, including those arising out of defects in car seats or the negligence of individuals or entities entrusted with the care of a child. Contact The Killino Firm at 877-875-2927 for a no-cost evaluation of your case and information about your legal rights and options.
Legal Liability for Child Car Seat Injuries or Deaths
Preventable injuries or deaths to children may be caused by defective car seats that failed to provide adequate protection to such children during traffic accidents or crashes. Even when a car seat is not defective in any way, the negligence of someone entrusted with a child’s care may lead to a child’s car seat injury or death, under certain circumstances.
Liability for Car Seat Injuries or Deaths Caused by Defective Car Seats
Car seats are often recalled for defects that have been discovered by the manufacturers of the car seats or that have been reported to agencies such as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Defects leading to recalls include problems with safety latches that are either disengaged too easily or with too much difficulty, weak frames, and faulty straps. Even when a manufacturer does not recall defective car seats, however, the manufacturer and others in the chain of a defective car seat’s distribution may be found liable for injuries or deaths found to have been caused by the car seat’s defect. A car seat can be found defective regardless of whether it has been recalled and regardless of whether it meets current industry or other standards.
Actions to recover damages for personal injuries or deaths caused by defective products, including defective children’s car seats, are brought as product liability actions, which are governed by the law of the state in which they are filed. Most states have enacted some form of the Model Uniform Product Liability Act (MUPLA), while others have enacted their own state statutes. Despite the variance among product liability laws among the states, however, most states allow product liability actions to be brought against the manufacturer and others in the chain of distribution of a product to recover damages for injuries or deaths caused by a defect in the product.
Most states provide for the bringing of product liability actions as breach of warranty, negligence, or strict liability claims, but the strict liability form of product liability action is usually employed when damages for personal injuries or death are sought. Strict liability claims provide the plaintiff with an advantage over negligence claims, as they relieve the plaintiff of the necessity of proving negligence on the part of any of the defendants in the production of the defective product or its release to consumers. Plaintiffs in strict liability claims satisfy their burden of proving the elements of the claim by establishing that a defect in the product occurred at the time the victim’s accident occurred, that the defect was a cause of the victim’s injuries or death, and that the plaintiff suffered legally compensable damages as a result of the victim’s injury or death. In most states, the defendants who may be found liable for injuries or deaths caused by a defect in a child’s car seat include the designer and manufacturer of the product as a whole, the designer and manufacturer of component parts of the car seat, the assembler and supplier of the car seat or its component parts, and the retailer of the car seat.
Liability for Car Seat Injuries or Deaths Caused by the Negligence of Children’s Caregivers
A car seat injury or death may also occur in the absence of a defect in the car seat in which a child was riding at the time an accident occurred if the child was improperly placed in the seat or if the seat was improperly installed. If someone in whom a child’s care was entrusted in the absence of the child’s parents negligently installed a car seat or negligently placed the child in the car seat, that person may be found liable for the child’s injury or death if the negligent installation of the car seat or negligent placement of the child in the car seat is determined to have been a cause of the child’s injury or death.
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If your child has died or been injured in a traffic accident due to a defective car seat or the negligence of someone entrusted to install or place your child in a car seat, you may be entitled to damages for the suffering caused to you and your child. Contact child injury and car seat injury attorney Jeffrey Killino at 877-875-2927 for expert and experienced assistance with your case.
