Carseat Laws

nanny2be10

New member
A mother in my town was just arrested in the deaths of two of her three children. Her children, ages 1, 2, and 4 were buckled in seatbelts (no carseats) when she crashed. The youngest two died. She was charged with child endangerment and something else. (As she should!)

What I'm wondering is if a parent puts in a ten year old carseat, not installed correctly or even tightly, can they be charged with anything? It only seems fair..

I know many parents that think buckling a carseat in without tightening or using locking plates is safe. :eek: Can they be held accountable?
 
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LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
If the state has a clause in the law saying that seats must be properly/correctly used, then yes, the parent would be in violation of the law and could be charged. Whether or not they are is a different story.

It's also often hard to determine misuse after the fact, depending on what the misuse is.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
I don't know, I'm sure the laws vary in different places.
I think if it can be shown in a court of law that the parent knew better and could have reasonably done better, they should be held accountable.
For example, if you could get multiple witnesses to say something like, "I told her she needed to lock the seat belt but she said it was too much trouble" or something, the parents should be held liable.
There's such an information gap out there, though, it's hard for me to want to prosecute every parent who just didn't know that the straps needed to be snug.
 

jnamommy

New member
I also think some misuse is just too hard to prove after the fact. When we were in our crash, the kids were removed by people trying to help. The seats were also pulled out in order for the EMTS to help get my mom out of the back. So afterward, there would have been no way for law enforecement to know if my seats had been installed and used correctly or not (other than that I knew they were).
 

Jessica61624

New member
Brigala said:
I don't know, I'm sure the laws vary in different places.
I think if it can be shown in a court of law that the parent knew better and could have reasonably done better, they should be held accountable.
For example, if you could get multiple witnesses to say something like, "I told her she needed to lock the seat belt but she said it was too much trouble" or something, the parents should be held liable.
There's such an information gap out there, though, it's hard for me to want to prosecute every parent who just didn't know that the straps needed to be snug.

Like any other law there is no excuse for not knowing it. Like if you steal and say well I didn't know stealing is illegal you're still held to the law. I don't think it matters of they know the laws they are still responsable.
 

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
It would really need to be very gross, very obvious misuse to even consider charging a parent. It's very likely that the seatbelt or LATCH strap (and possibly the harness) will stretch in a crash, so how do you prove it was loose before hand?

Also, how do you prove that the misuse is what caused the death/injury? Much easier to do when a kid isn't restrained at all, but harder when the harness is loose. How loose was it? Would the child have been injured anyway?

It's a very murky area.
 

Phineasmama

New member
Well a 10 year old car seat is going to be obvious misuse. Or what about if they have a baby forward facing in an infant bucket? Stuff like that I can see.
 

bnsnyde

New member
I saw two BAD accidents on our road trip.

And 2 others I just read about. Mom drove drunk and crashed. 3 and 4-year-olds ejected and no seats. Survived but barely.
In another similar one, the mom died but the kids did not. No carseats, again. Kids broke legs, I think.

Locally, a mom rammed into her ex on purpose and her kids all got hurt.

It's the accidents where the parent does everything right and life is still lost, that scare me most. Since, I know I'd never drive drunk (have never had alcohol), and I always use carseats, and properly to the best of my knowledge. :) You just never know the state of other drivers, though.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
I also think some misuse is just too hard to prove after the fact. When we were in our crash, the kids were removed by people trying to help. The seats were also pulled out in order for the EMTS to help get my mom out of the back. So afterward, there would have been no way for law enforecement to know if my seats had been installed and used correctly or not (other than that I knew they were).

In our crash, the seats remained in our vehicle (despite me yelling to leave the kids in their car seats, sigh.)

We got about 9 inches of movement at the belt path when we checked the two forward-facing seats. :eek: I know for a fact that they were installed with zero movement when we left- I checked! The seatbelts stretched THAT MUCH. So again, harnesses stretch, seatbelts stretch- unless there was someone in the car who could testify that the seat was used incorrectly (meaning they'd have to know enough to know that- in which case why didn't they fix it?) or you have an ejection, partial or complete, or the parent admits misuse, that's almost impossible to prove if the seats aren't expired, correct belt path is used, etc. Even then the case is iffy. So I'd imagine that contributes to not a lot of prosecutions for harm caused by improperly used car seats.
 

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