Hildebrand & Wilson, LLC represents families whose children have been injured in motor vehicle collisions — including injuries caused by the restraint systems intended to keep them safe. Car seats and booster seats are designed to protect children, but they interact with small, developing bodies in ways that adult safety systems do not anticipate. When a crash occurs, the results can be both serious and difficult to detect.
How Children Are Injured in Collisions
Children are not simply small adults. Their skeletal structure, muscle development, and organ positioning differ significantly from those of grown passengers. A collision that produces manageable injuries in an adult can cause serious harm to a child, even when the restraint system functions exactly as designed.
Harness straps on forward and rear-facing car seats apply restraining force across the chest and shoulders. In a significant impact, that force — concentrated across a small body with developing bones and cartilage — can cause rib fractures, clavicle injuries, internal bruising, and abdominal trauma. The same restraint that prevents ejection can cause its own pattern of injury.
Booster seat injuries present a different challenge. Booster seats position the adult lap and shoulder belt across the child’s body, but the geometry of that positioning is not always correct. If the lap belt rides up across the abdomen rather than sitting low on the hips, a collision can cause serious abdominal compression — a pattern sometimes called “seat belt syndrome” — affecting the intestines, mesentery, and lumbar spine.
The Problem of Delayed and Invisible Injuries
Children are often unable to accurately describe their pain or recognize that something is wrong. Young children in particular may cry immediately after a collision and then appear to settle — leading parents and first responders to underestimate the severity of the impact on the child’s body. Internal injuries, in particular, may not produce visible symptoms in the critical window following the crash.
Abdominal injuries from lap belt compression can involve internal bleeding that develops over hours. Spinal injuries in children may not produce immediate neurological symptoms. Parents who accept reassurances that their child appears fine without seeking thorough medical evaluation may discover weeks later that an injury was overlooked.
Misuse of Restraint Systems
A significant percentage of child restraint injuries involve car seats or booster seats that were not properly installed or used. Common errors include harness straps that are too loose, chest clips positioned too low, rear-facing seats that have been transitioned to forward-facing prematurely, and booster seats used before a child meets the appropriate height and weight thresholds. When these errors contribute to injury, questions of liability extend beyond the at-fault driver to include the adults responsible for proper restraint use.
Medical and Legal Considerations
Medical evaluation following any collision involving a child should be thorough regardless of initial appearance. Imaging, physical examination, and observation are essential when the collision involved significant force. Medical records establishing the nature and timeline of the injury form the foundation of any legal claim.
Attorneys representing injured children ensure that the full impact of the injury is documented — including pain and disruption to the child’s daily life, the family’s time and costs associated with medical care, and any long-term implications for the child’s development or health. Settlements reached without legal guidance often fail to account for the long arc of a child’s recovery.
If your child was injured in a Texas car accident, seeking both prompt medical care and early legal consultation protects both the child’s health and the family’s ability to pursue fair compensation.