6-Year-Old Not Wearing Seatbelt Critically Injured in Crash

A 6-year-old boy was critically injured on the night of Sunday, March 28th, when the vehicle he was riding in was rear ended. The boy was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

A crash on US-290 at 34th in Houston resulted in a boy being critically injured. According to police, the boy wasn’t wearing his seatbelt when the collision took place.

The boy was one of three children riding in a black car on US-290 when the accident happened at around 9:30 p.m. Reportedly, the driver of the vehicle stopped in the road while trying to avoid a mattress that was on the freeway.

When the vehicle stopped, it was rear ended by another vehicle.

The 6-year-old was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. According to the most recent police update, the child was undergoing surgery.

The boy seems to be the only individual who was seriously injured in the crash.

Tragically, in 2019, nearly 150 children 14 years old or younger died in Texas car accidents. 14-year-olds saw the highest number of car accident fatalities with 17 dead.

The youngest children, those between 0-3, were the most likely to be wearing seatbelts, while those not restrained were generally older children. For 13-year-olds, specifically, no children who were wearing seat belts were killed in crashes.

There’s no denying that wearing your seatbelt reduces the likelihood that you will be killed in a car accident. One major concern that seatbelts help address is the possibility of ejection. Being ejected in a crash, unsurprisingly, is far more dangerous than being restrained within a vehicle. In fact, ejects are more than twice as likely to result in death as non-ejections.

Seatbelts are one of the best defenses against ejections. While only 2% of those wearing seatbelts are ejected in crashes, a staggering 35% of those who fail to buckle up are thrown from their vehicle during a crash.

While the data is skimp, it’s frequently noted that those who fail to wear their seatbelts are more likely to be thrown violently against the insides of their vehicle, even if they aren’t fully ejected.

Another factor that can come into play regarding child seat belt use is the transition between booster seats and regular seat belt usage. 7-year-olds, those just before the acceptable time to switch to regular belt use, were the least likely to be wearing a seatbelt before their fatal accident.

With all of this in mind, it’s important that parents take care when deciding the appropriate time to stop using a booster seat. According to Kids Health, your child can stop using a booster seat “when they can easily rest their back against the seat of the car and bend their knees over the edge of the seat.” This generally happens from 8 to 12 years old.

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Source : ABC13

6-Year-Old Not Wearing Seatbelt Critically Injured in Crash

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