Car Crashes and Children – Eye Damage
I’m Ed Smith, a Stockton Personal Injury Lawyer. Going for a car ride with young children can be a challenge. Numerous distractions might pop up along with the worry of being involved in a car accident.
Because of their size, children need to be protected, and extra measures must be taken when they ride in motor vehicles. Children should always sit in the safest location in a car whenever possible. For vehicles with a back seat, this means sitting in the middle. This is going to be as far as possible from any impact in a car accident and can help prevent serious injuries, such as bone fractures.
It is always important to make sure that children have proper seating in a motor vehicle. Parents should follow the recommendations and make sure that kids stay in a car seat until they are old enough and heavy enough to transition to a booster seat. This should be viewed as a stepping stone to riding in a full-sized seat and kids shouldn’t be in a full seat until they are ready. This is important because kids who are too small may not be able to wear an adult seatbelt properly. This can put them at risk of suffering severe injuries in a car crash. Furthermore, if the airbag deploys, they could sustain major facial lacerations.
Watch YouTube Video – Keeping Children Safe in Crashes: Overview. This video by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety provides parents an overview of how to reduce the risk of injuries to their children by properly securing them in the back seats.
Research: Children and Eye Injuries Can Be Complicated
A recent study revealed some of the serious eye injuries that children can sustain in a car crash. Some of the possible injuries include:
- Foreign Body: Some children can wind up with a foreign object in their eye. This happens when someone gets dust, an eyelash, or a grain of sand in his or her eye. These foreign bodies can come from anywhere. Sometimes, the impact of an auto accident can release shards of glass into the air. These can get lodged in someone’s eye. In other cases, the dust, sand, and debris from an airbag can impact the child’s eye.
- Orbital Fracture: Improper placement of a child in a car can lead to the airbag hitting a child in the face. A direct impact to an eye has the potential to cause a severe orbital fracture, displacing the eye behind the socket into the skull. If not treated quickly, a child could lose his or her eyesight, creating a significant quality of life issues.
Eye Injuries Require the Right Treatment
When a child sustains an eye injury in a car crash, treating the kid as quickly as possible is vital to preserve the function of the eye and prevent more damage from occurring. Foreign bodies should be treated using irrigation with copious fluids. Water or a saline solution should be adequate to remove most debris. Sometimes, specialized medical equipment is needed to remove the debris without damaging the surrounding eye globe. Children who sustain fractures to the orbital socket could require surgery to repair the fractures. Care and consideration should be given to ensure that the aqueous humor of the eye is preserved. The prognosis of this injury will depend on both the severity of the fracture and the speed with which the damage is repaired.
The Help of a Caring Attorney
Good vision is an essential part of maintaining a good quality of life. Therefore, it is vital that children, who have many years ahead of them, protect their vision. In some cases, accidents leading to eye injuries in children are preventable. Sometimes, seatbelts and airbags malfunction, leading to injuries. Other times, accidents are the result of someone else’s negligence. These accidents could cause chronic injuries that last for an entire lifetime. For this reason, it is essential to speak with an experienced lawyer to make sure that all accidents are investigated thoroughly.
Personal Injury Lawyers in Stockton
I’m Ed Smith, a Stockton Personal Injury Lawyer. No measure is too high to protect a child. If someone you love suffered severe eye injuries in an accident, please call me at (209) 227-1931 or (800) 404-5400 for free, friendly and compassionate legal advice.
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