Shopping for a new car and concerned about your family’s safety? Findings from an analysis done for U.S. News & World Report suggests that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s safety scores aren’t always indicative of how children will fare in car crashes. Neither the NHTSA nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety uses child-sized dummies in car crash tests, making it difficult to know how child-safe a vehicle is.
Though the NHTSA uses child-sized dummies to test child safety seats, its evaluators do not assess damage to smaller dummies when rating overall vehicle safety. To provide such data, researchers are developing a crash test dummies that more closely mimics that size and composition of a child’s body. The smallest of these so-called "biofidelic" dummies will simulate a small woman, about the size of a 13-year-old.
As a Virginia-based personal injury attrney, I’ve seen all kinds of injuries resulting from car accidents. It’s always especially tragic when a child is endangered. Though we can’t always know exactly how safe our vehicles are, if you have kids, consider buying a larger car. SUVs and minivans often take on less damage when in an accident. Their size simply stands up better to tough conditions on the road.
And while it may seem like common sense, always remember to buckle up the little ones. "Nearly half of kids 14 and under who died in crashes were completely unrestrained," Safe Kids USA told U.S. News & World Report. Proper child seat use can reduce the risk of death as much as 71 percent.
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About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard,Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
One Comment
Wayne Parsons
Thanks for informing families about this important issue. www.Kidsandcars.org is also a great resource for trying to reduce serious injury and death for kids across the country. I recently saw a talk by a lawyer who showed graphic videos about how most cars are susceptible to front seats breaking away from their floor bolts and crashing into kids in the back seat in their safety seats. I hope to read more about this subject. Keep up the good work. You are saving lives.
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