There are few things as beautiful as the first giggles of a newborn baby and when you hold her/him in your arms for the first time you know that it is your sworn duty to protect this little one at all costs. Even before you hear these giggles you are already thinking about how you might go about protecting your new arrival from the dangers of the world.
One danger that you have undoubtedly thought through is the danger of a Connecticut auto accident and how you might take steps to keep your child safe if one were ever to happen to you while your child was in the car. It is, of course, the law to make sure your child is properly seated in a car seat from the moment they take their first breath, but how do you, as a person with limited expertise, figure out which car seat is the safest for your little one?
The simplest way to do this is to follow the ratings scale that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has implemented to help parents decide which car seat is right to protect their child. The rating system takes into account the following categories when rating car seats for your knowledge:
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The clarity and ease of understanding that the installation instructions provide to the purchaser and user of the car seat.
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How easy the car seat is to install into a vehicle using the features that it provides to users who are trying to connect the car seat properly.
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Whether the labels that are intended to provide users ease of use in the installation process of the car seat are clear and concise.
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How easy it is to restrain a child using the features of the car seat.
According to the NHTSA all car seats that carry an NHTSA rating meet the Federal Safety Standards and the strictest of crash performance standards. It is for this reason that the focus of this ratings system is on the ease of use of the language and tools that are provided by each car seat. The NHTSA star rating system provides guidance in the following way;
5 Stars: Excellent features
4 Stars: Above average features
3 Stars: Average features
2 Stars: Below average features
1 Star: Poor features
The NHTSA makes it extremely clear that this rating system is not designed to indicate how well these car seats performed in crash tests or any other safety testing, the ratings are clearly marketing the ease of use of each car seat. This is extremely important because according to the NHTSA 3 out of 4 car seats are installed incorrectly and in the event of a Connecticut auto accident an incorrectly installed car seat could be the difference between serious injury or a child that survives with limited injuries from the accident.
While it does not matter if you follow this rating system or not, you still may be in a situation where your child was injured in an accident. If this is the case you may need to seek the expertise of an experienced attorney who has worked on situations like yours in the past. Contact our office and one of our attorneys will review your situation and work with you on protecting your long-term interests.
