Car Seats and Car Accidents

I bring this story to you at our unfortunate expense. Last night, my family and I were involved in a semi-minor car accident. My husband accidentally merged onto another vehicle. It was a pure accident and there was, thankfully, no injuries. The entire passenger side of his vehicle was damaged. I was in the passenger seat as with my son riding in the back seat on the passenger side. Our accident COULD have been so much worse than it actually was.

It was brought to my attention immediately to look into replacing my children’s car seats. Mind you, our vehicle was ‘drivable’ after the accident and followed other “rules” to classify the accident as minor but there was damage to the door where my son’s seat was sitting. This factor requires us to have to replace my son’s car seat. This would seem like a no brain-er but you’d be surprised how many people would not replace the seat. The impact to our vehicle was quite “low” as my children slept right through the whole thing and only woke when we pulled the car over to call the police. However, despite the “low” impact to the car, you can’t be certain on what sort of impact the car seat had to take on while the accident happened; no point in chancing it.

This also brings me to another point. Once we pulled over and took light of what just happened we debated waking our kids to make sure they were alright or let them sleep as we knew we had to wait for an officer. As I looked back to check on them the immediate thought crossed my mind: thank you Lord that their buckles and straps are properly placed! My mind instantly raced to all the children I see (plastered all over social media and TV shows) not properly buckled and thought to myself: HAD our accident been more serious and HAD my children’s buckles not been placed properly we could have had a way more horrible outcome then just increased insurance rates. I am SO thankful that my husband and I are educated on car seat safety and properly buckle our children into their car seats. I urge you right now if you’re reading this to go make sure that your child’s buckles are in the proper location and proper tightness for their body. If you are in ANY way unsure of this, PLEASE contact your local authorities and ask where your nearest car seat safety inspection site is and promptly have them help you with your questions. My children’s lives could have been lost yesterday in our car accident and thankfully they weren’t even woken from their naps due to being safely placed into their seats. Please don’t let your children be victims of improper car seat usage.

Once the car seat is replaced. GET RID OF IT. Make sure you cut the straps and slash the lining. Unfortunately too many people will dig them out of garbage bins to reuse not realizing they are unsafe! You can also take them to a place like Babies R Us during one of their trade up events as they dispose of all used car seat they get.