Two children paralysed in car accident

[Rabbit62]

What car seat did these children have? There has been a story in the news today where the driver of the other car has been jailed for four years. The parents both had broken bones but why were the children so badly hurt? Is there something for the rest of us to learn?

They had spinal injuries according to one story I read. The car seats weren't mentioned but doubt they would have prevented that sort of injury

I was also interested in this. I was under the impression that car seats should make children safer than adults without car seats. For example, there are lots of car seats reviews which say I had this accidents and broke bones and had internal injuries, but my children were in X car seat and were completely unharmed. I was therefore shocked to learn that it was the children who were the injured ones in this case, whilst the adults were fine.

I suppose it depends where the other driver hit the car as to who got the worst injuries

I was under the impression that car seats should make children safer than adults without car seats

What car seats do is position children such that the adult safety devices function appropriately and, for small children, protect their necks (because HANS devices aren't practical). Typically, a child will be about as well protected in a car seat as an adult sat in the front of the car with modern airbags and a pre-tensioning seat belt.

A lot of companies try to imply that robust, thick-shelled car seats are somehow beneficial. People are almost never seriously injured in car accidents in modern cars at legal speeds by penetrating or crushing injuries where the additional presence of a few millimetres of tough plastic would have helped. What kills and injures people in car accidents is deceleration, because it snaps things and has internal organs doing things they shouldn't, and impact with the interior of the car, particularly (mostly) head injuries (hence why the single best thing adults could do to stay safe in cars would be to wear helmets).

Seatbelts and airbags lengthen the deceleration pulse and keep you away from the structure of the car, and car seats' job is to position a child so that they get that advantage without the problems caused by the safety systems if you aren't the right size. The sacrificial lining of a car seat might make a small difference, but there's not a lot of evidence to go on as to how large that effect is. So long as the seat doesn't lose its integrity, it's probably doing about as good a job as it can.

It was head on wasn't it? The video of the crash was on the news.

I am guessing it was the age of the children that is the 'problem'. 6 & 8 so would have been in forward facing high backed boosters and using adult seat belts, but still with larger head to body ratios than adults.

Can anything be done to make older children safer in a head on collision? It worries me because my children are this age.

Cross posted there.

It's all very depressing.

Most 6 and 8 year olds round here are on booster seats BurnTheBlackSuit. Lots of my kids' friends are shocked when they get a lift in our car because we still use HBBs.

Can anything be done to make older children safer in a head on collision?

Rear facing, but it's not practical as children get taller.

HANS devices, but you'd look a bit mad. Look at how survivable rally and touring car accidents are, with drivers in helmets, five/six point harnesses and HANS devices.

It was a high speed head-on collision, I imagine the children were thrown sharply forward leading to spinal injuries.

I think car seats protect more from side-on collisions.

It's tragic and really shows how vulnerable children on in the car.

I don't think we'll ever know what seats they were in. A few people have commented this and i don't think it's helpful to the parents.

The best we can do is rearface til the max (my DD will be in her axkid til shes 6) and HBB til the max.

You can only protect them best you can. However you can't predict such a forceful collision.

There was a case where a under 1 got life changing injuries due to a similar incident. If only she was rearfacing she would have probably come off with minor injuries. The parents didn't know any different. They possibly still don't.

Both sentences given to the drivers in the cases were woefully insufficient. Nays partner should have faced some charge as she was in passenger seat too.

It's not helpful to the poor parents of the girls who were injured, but looking at ways that car safety can be improved could help other children being hurt so badly in the future.

Although the only real protection about that would be to not let idiots on the road.

If the parents were in the front then they would have had airbags?