I am not normally one to use scare tactics to reinforce child passenger safety information. However, I want to share with you the story of a real-life accident, which I heard from a fellow CPS advocate. I hope you will take a few minutes to read it.
The children were seated this way: A 3-year-old in a forward-facing seat on the driver’s side, a 5-year-old in a lap/shoulder belt on the passenger side, and an 8-year-old in a lap-only belt in the middle.
The father had turned around to yell at the kids to sit properly in their seat belts. He wasn’t paying attention and ran into the back of a stopped truck, at 65 mph.
The 3-year-old had a big bruise on his stomach from an improperly positioned chest clip. It also appeared that he had whiplash, because he wouldn’t turn his head to either side.
The 5-year-old suffered huge bruises to his chest and stomach, and almost bled to death from a deep cut in his neck from the seatbelt.
The 8-year-old hit his face on the center console, breaking his nose and lower jaw. His intestines were sliced in several places from the forces of the lap belt.
One year later:
At 9, the oldest still has some hip problems and walks with the help of crutches. He developed extreme IBS and reflux after his intestines healed (they are now 8″ shorter), and has a permanent GI tube in his stomach. He’s had a ton of corrective plastic surgery and is now a year behind in school.
The youngest is 4. Mentally, he is doing the worst. He no longer speaks, has anxiety attacks in public places, and still fights getting in the car.
The middle boy, now 6, still has a large scar on his neck, but is otherwise OK.
The entire family is still in therapy.
Please remember to keep your children properly restrained for their age, size, and maturity level. And please, please, PLEASE do not use a lap-only seatbelt for anything other than installing a harnessed car seat.
If the 3-year-old’s car seat had been installed with the lap-only belt, the 8-year-old probably would’ve been fine sitting with just a lap/shoulder belt. The 5-year-old would have been fine if he was in a booster seat, since it would have made his seatbelt fit properly (though a harnessed seat like the one Big Brother uses would have been even better). The 3-year-old was lucky he didn’t suffer any internal bleeding from the chest clip, and his injuries would probably have been less severe if he had been rear-facing.
Again….PLEASE don’t put your kids (or adults!) in a lap-only belt. And if they’re not mature enough to sit properly in a booster, keep them harnessed!
To learn more about keeping kids safe in the car, visit my car seat info page or post specific questions in the comment section below.
I can’t imagine how awful it would be to be just 9 and have IBS already. Or to be terrified of riding in a car. Poor wee ones. I hope, though, that you realize that because of *your* efforts as advocate, other families have been saved from a similar fate. That’s something to be enormously proud of, you know.
Yet they are the lucky ones…About ten years ago I read in the paper of a mother who didn’t restrain any of her three children …All of whom were thrown out of the car and died as a result of the accident…Unfortunately the mother was never charged and jailed as she should have been…
These days that woman WOULD be jailed. There is way too much info and knowledge for her to plead ignorance. Aswell she should be charged and jailed. Anyhow.. that woman lives in her own private prison knowing what she did to her own flesh and blood. I, fortunately, have my own personal source of info and am pretty sure that in any accident, my child is as safe as I can make him.
Thank you for that Bookmama!! And for all the correct carseats!! I tease you about your surplus but here in BC, I believe there are 5 for 1 child!! Junior has 2.. one we dont use tho, KAM picked it up at a garage sale, Hubby and I have one in each car, and one more in the basement waiting for JD to grow into.
Knowledge is a wonderful thing and so is my child!!!
My pleasure btwinny. I’m glad you are so willing to take my advice. (Here’s some more advice … toss that garage sale seat. Please. 🙂 You don’t know the history of it, particularly whether it was ever in an accident, so you don’t know if it’s a safe seat.) Is the one in the basement the one from Mom? And I have NEVER had 5 seats for one child. Even now I OWN 11 seats but three are out on loan and one is officially outgrown and is just waiting for me to donate it to an instructor.
I only own that many cause of other people. I have actually only paid for the original baby carseat and then the next seat (thats in Hubby’s car). In my car, Junior’s car, and basement are from you. I think the only reason KAM hasnt tossed the one from a garage sale is on that freak incident that she has to pick up JD and cannot get to Junior’s or my car. I know there’s always that 1 time and anything could happen but really, what are the chances that in that one instance, in that seat, less than 2 miles from daycare to Kam’s house….. you see the point. Its a stretch that it would ever be used. We are talking Junior and I cant get away from work, Hubby still on the way home, school closing by 6. It will most likely NEVER happen and Im rambling but really, in an extreme pinch, better safe than sorry.
JD would fit that seat from Mom now, he’s big enough. So toss the garage sale seat and stick the one from mom in KAM’s basement. (After all, better safe than sorry. 🙂 ) And make sure she knows how to install it and adjust the harness, which is a little different than other seats.
You can tell KAM her bossy big SIL told you to do it.
Back in December (just before Christmas) I almost took my cell phone out to take a picture of a child standing up in the back of a shopping cart which is extremely unsafe…However I decided not to when I remembered that it is a crime here in Georgia to take a picture of a child in a store…Yet the more I thought about it the more incensed I became that I could be arrested for taking a picture of a child with my cell phone; while his mama can intentionally place her child in danger of receiving a serious and life threatening head injury by walking all around Wal-mart with her child standing up in the back of the shopping cart…Instead of properly restraining her child in the seat with the safety strap provided…
Thank you for this story! We have posted it on our blog
PoshBabyBlog.com