As Arizona injury attorneys, we see many car accidents with children. Many children’s lives would have been saved if they had been in a child restraint system. We had one case where the child received a huge gash to the middle of her face because she bounced around the car and hit the side glass when involved in a car accident. She did have her seatbelt on. She required plastic surgery and will have a huge car across her face for the rest of her life. Seatbelts although better than nothing for little children do not work like car seats. That is because children are too little for the seatbelt to work appropriately. In fact, if adults were to have safety harnesses like car seats instead of seatbelts that we have available, those safety harnesses would save the lives of many adults who are killed each year because the seatbelt was not enough to save them when involved in a serious car accident.
If a child is under the age of 5, they must be in a child restraint system. It does not matter how much they weigh or how tall they are. If they are 5 years of age or younger, under Arizona law, they need to be in a car seat or restraint system. There are many different types of car seats and retraints systems.
If you get pulled over by the police, you will be fined and sometimes the fine can be as much as $200.00. For as little as about $40.00 you can buy a car seat that is safe for your little one. It is better to buy a car seat new than used as the safety requirements are always being changed by the federal government.
