The United States Federal Government is scheduled to study how child safety seats fair in side-impact car wrecks. There are currently no federal standards that regulate the manufacturing of child safety seats to withstand a side-impact car wreck. Special products are already in stores that have been developed by European manufacturers.
Child safety seats are designed to offer protection in front-impact car wrecks, which is the most common form of car wreck. Side-impact car wrecks have the highest rate of serious injury and fatality. In a side-impact car wreck, a child can sustain serious injuries to the head, face, chest and thorax, due to improperly designed child safety seats.
Currently, there is no way to test if the newly manufactured safety features for child car seats will be effective in side-impact car wrecks.
In the United States, there is no way to document the effectiveness of the products since there is no standard crash test dummy or test procedure. American car safety seat manufactures will not begin producing safety products until the Federal Government establishes procedures and guidelines, which is scheduled for later this year.
If your child, or the child of a loved one, has been seriously or fatally injured in a car wreck due to defects in a child safety seat, contact a child safety seat attorney at Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP at 1-800-460-0606. An experienced child safety seat lawyer will be able to evaluate if you are eligible to seek compensation.