Texas Baby Product Defect Attorney
Texas parents should always use a child car seat every time they drive with a child in the car, regardless of the length of the trip. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), use of car seats reduces the risk of death in passenger cars by 71% for infants under one year, and by 54% for toddlers ages 1 to 4 years. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, auto accidents are a leading cause of child fatalities.
Parents should do everything in their power to prevent injuries to their children riding in a car–including driving defensively to avoid accidents, following the manufacturer’s instructions to properly secure their child into the car seat, and to watch out for possible child car seat recalls.
Because parents tend to be conscientious, and they want their children to be safe, most parents in Texas routinely strap their children into child safety seats with the thought that the car seat will keep them safe in the event of a car crash. Not only is it the safe thing to do, its also the law. The law in the State of Texas has made the use of a car seat mandatory:
“A person commits an offense if the person operates a passenger vehicle, transports a child who is younger than eight years of age, unless the child is taller than four feet, nine inches and does not keep the child secured during the operation of the vehicle in a child passenger safety seat system according to the instructions of the manufacturer of the safety seat system.”
Sometimes, following the law is not enough. Cautious and law-abiding parents believe that given the decades of research, development and testing that have gone into making car seats as safe as possible that they are, in fact, safe for their intended purposes. Unfortunately, some child safety seats are defective by design, warnings, or manufacturing making them unreasonably dangerous and defective for their intended purpose.
When a child’s car seat is defective it can lead to catastrophic consequences. Defectively designed or manufactured parts on a car seat can include shoulder straps, clips, belts, seatbelt attachment slots, or pelvic protectors. Failure of any of these in an auto accident can lead to serious injury to your child, or even death.
If your child has been injured or has died in an auto accident, and you believe their car seat was defective, you should not hesitate and should contact the San Antonio, Texas Baby Defective Product Injury Lawyer at Hill Law Firm today. The attorney at Hill Law Firm has worked with experts regarding unsafe car seats to investigate and prosecute cases against those responsible for child safety seat defects. If your child has been injured or killed by a defective child safety seat, call the Texas Defective Child Product Injury Attorney at Hill Law Firm today.