Modern vehicles are equipped with safety features designed to protect drivers and passengers in the event of a car accident. Among these features, safety restraint systems are among the most important for minimizing injuries and saving lives.
At Flaxman Law Group, however, our car accident lawyers have seen far too many injuries caused by faulty use of safety restraints or by poorly designed systems. If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Florida, you need to know that you may be eligible for a claim and to seek compensation if your injuries were caused by someone’s negligence. After a car crash, we invite you to contact Flaxman Law Group for a free accident consultation to find out more about your potential options for compensation.
The Role of Safety Restraint Systems
Seat belts and child safety restraint systems are designed to keep occupants securely in their seats during sudden stops or collisions. This reduces the risk that an occupant will be violently thrown around the inside of the car, which can result in internal injuries as well as head injuries and other serious harm. Safety restraint systems also keep occupants from being ejected from the car. This is important because being thrown through the windshield can cause life-threatening head and internal injuries.
Restraint systems can include different features in your car:
- Seat Belts: Seat belts are the primary safety restraint system in vehicles, designed to secure passengers in place so they’re not thrown forward in a collision. Wearing seat belts significantly reduces the risk of severe injuries or ejection from the car.
- Airbags: Airbags are supplemental safety devices that deploy upon impact to cushion occupants, so they don’t strike hard surfaces (like the dashboard) in the vehicle. They work with seat belts to reduce injuries to the head, chest, and other vulnerable areas.
- Child Safety Seats: For young passengers, specialized child safety seats provide additional protection by ensuring proper restraint for infants and children of various ages and sizes.
- Side-Impact Airbags: These airbags deploy on the side of the vehicle facing the impact, providing protection against side impact collisions. They also help prevent passengers from hitting the sides of the car and sustaining injuries that way.
- Curtain Airbags: Located near the roofline, curtain airbags provide head protection in the event of a side collision or rollover.
Safety restraint systems work by distributing the forces of a collision over stronger parts of the body, such as the chest and hips. Some keep passengers in place to prevent them from striking the windshield, dashboard, or other hard surfaces.
Legal Challenges After a Car Crash
While safety restraint systems are designed to ensure passenger safety and save lives, their effectiveness depends on proper usage and on good design. In Florida, you’re required to follow the law when it comes to seat belt use, which means you must wear your seat belt each time you drive or ride in a car. If there’s a child passenger in the car, he or she needs an age-appropriate safety restraint system.
One challenge is that not all systems are designed safely. For example, in the past some seatbelts have been designed for taller adults. Smaller adults have sometimes sustained catastrophic facial and neck injuries due to airbags and seat belts. Some child safety seats have also been recalled or have been the cause of lawsuits after they caused injuries.
If you’re in a car accident and your safety restraint system fails to protect you or causes injuries because of a faulty design, you may have a claim against the manufacturer. You may also have a claim against any liable parties in your crash and may be able to seek compensation for your pain and suffering, lost income, car repair bills, property damage, medical costs, and other losses. It’s important to explore your options in this situation because these costs can be devastating and can impact your financial life for years to come.
It’s not easy to tell whether you have a claim, especially if you don’t have a legal background. That’s why you may want to speak to the Florida car accident claims attorneys at Flaxman Law Group. Our family legal firm and father-son attorney team understand how distressing a car collision can be. Through our offices in Miami, Homestead, and Hollywood, we’ve also seen how car accident survivors across South Florida face significant financial challenges through no fault of their own. We want to make a difference, which is why we offer free, no obligation consultations to anyone who’s been injured in a car crash in South Florida. Just call us at 866-352-9626 or contact us online to set up your free accident consultation today.