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Woman Buckles Up Infant As Her Last Act

By Eddie Farah

A very sad story was in our paper this week.

A woman, 39-year-old Kimberly Frazier, was driving south on U.S. 1 in Flagler County in northeast Florida. She drove her Chevy Blazer too close to a truck being driven by James Wilkes, 50, of Green Cove Springs, west of Jacksonville.

For some reason, her car clipped the back end of the semi. It was the middle of the afternoon so the cause is a mystery, but it was enough to cause Frazier to lose control of the SUV and overturn. She was not wearing her seat belt and died at the scene.

But one-year-old Hannah Leveile, buckled in in the back seat, survived with no reported injuries. It's unclear whether this child was Frazier's daughter, but her last act saved this infant's life.

It's too bad she didn't think about herself too.

All 50 states require child safety seats, the best defense against the number one killer of children, motor vehicle crashes.

But in Florida, 80 percent of car seats have been found to be installed incorrectly. Either the harness was misused or the seat was not anchored properly to the car. Sometimes people even put an infant seat in the front of a vehicle which, for obvious reasons, is a bad idea.

Even children who have outgrown a toddler seat around the age of four should be placed in a booster seat until they are at least eight years or 4’ 9”.

And all kids 12 and younger should sit in the back seat.

The majority of infants killed in auto accidents results from someone failing to correctly install the child safety seat, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

But Frazier did none of those things when it came to caring for the infant. Seat belts are the law and this story serves to remind us why. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).