PHOENIX -- When it comes to our kids, we’ll do almost anything to keep them safe.
Yet, Arizona is being scolded for not having enough safety laws in place to protect kids when they ride in cars.
Tina Davis’s son, Brandon, is just one example of what can happen when kids are not properly protected in a car.
On December 9, 2008, Tina dropped Brandon off at day care in Show Low, Arizona.
Little did Tina know that would be the last time she would ever see her son walk.
“I got a call in the afternoon that he’d been in an accident,” Tina said.
Brandon’s injuries were so severe, he was transported to a hospital in Phoenix.
When Tina got to the hospital, she said she could hardly recognize her 5-year-old son.
“He was lying in the bed, and he just didn’t even look like my little boy,” Tina said. “He was so swollen and he had tubes hanging out everywhere.”
Two days later, doctors gave Tina the bad news.
“The surgeon said Brandon was internally decapitated,” she said. “The only thing that was holding his head on was his skin and his neck.”
Today, Brandon is a quadriplegic.
Tina said the accident happened while Brandon was riding in his day care’s transport van.
She said the day care put Brandon in the front seat without a booster seat; a huge risk for young children.
“I found out after his accident that that was common practice for the day care,” Tina said. “[They] let the children, as a reward for good behavior; they would let them ride in the front seat.”
According to Arizona law, Brandon’s day care did nothing wrong.
Arizona law mandates children must be in a booster seat through age 4.
However, Arizona remains one of only three states that does not require children ages five through eight be in a booster seat.
Tomi St. Mars is the Manager of the
Injury Prevention and Child Fatality Section of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
She said the purpose of a booster seat is to raise the child up, so that they fit the seat belt properly.
“A child’s body is not designed to withstand crash forces,” St. Mars said.
She said booster seats are 54 percent more effective at reducing injury than seat belts alone.
Part of St. Mars’ job is to get the word out to the community.
Just as we do at ABC15 with our annual Bundle on Board event.
“Many parents still don't understand the importance of a booster seat,” St. Mars said.
St. Mars said without a booster seat, a single accident can cause compression of the organs, a ruptured spleen and intestines, lacerated livers, lumbar fractures, even death.
According to St. Mars, all of those types of injuries have happen in Arizona.
The National Transportation Safety Board is scolding Arizona’s lack of booster seat law.
St. Mars said some lawmakers are opposed to a law because they don’t want to regulate parenting.
“Parents rely on the laws to protect our children,” St. Mars said. “Parents think if this is important, we need a law.”
Tina Davis is in full support of a law.
“It could have changed things, she said.
So, what does Tina think of lawmakers who say they don’t want to regulate parenting?
“Our situation is that it wasn't us as parents putting him in the front seat,” she said. “It was somebody else, somebody I thought I could trust.”
Almost a year later, Brandon is finding his own way back to being a kid.
“[Brandon will] tell me, ‘mommy I wish I didn't get in my accident so I could go play like the other kids’,” Tina said.
For now, Tina and Brandon Davis are telling their story; hoping for change.
“Maybe if there was a law out there, we wouldn’t be in the situation that we are right now,” she said.
Arizona lawmakers have said they are going to push for a law again this session.
Car Seat Safety
Learn which car seats should be used for infants, toddlers and childrenAmerican Academy of Pediatrics: Car Safety Seats GuideNational Highway Transportation Safety Administration: Child Passenger Safety Studies and ReportsCar Safety.org: Buying guides and articlesChildren's Hospital of Philadelphia: How to install your child's car seat or booster seatNTSB Urges Parents to Protect Their Children
