title: The medico-legal aspects of road traffic deaths in children under 5 years of age.
abstract: The family tragedy that results from a child who dies in a road traffic accident may be exacerbated by judicial consequences for the adult/parent driving the vehicle, carrying the child, or responsible for properly immobilising the child in the safety device that was used. The author presents two court cases of the road traffic accident deaths of two children under the age of five years. The two cases are presented using a methodological approach, which integrates competencies in other fields into the medico-legal aspects. An analysis of the two cases provides the opportunity to discuss the driver's responsibility to properly use child safety seat and to analyse and evaluate the efficacy and limits of child restraint systems. In the two cases, the responsibility for the application of a child safety device was excluded. It was confirmed that child protective devices are not always sufficient to avoid lesions or death in road accidents that occur with significant speed or other specific dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Legal Medicine and Toxicology, University Hospital of Padova, Via Falloppio 50, 35121, Padova, Italy. Electronic address: claudio.terranova@sanita.padova.it.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Terranova
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000328:Adult; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000293:injuries; D057207:Child Restraint Systems; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D044707:Forensic Sciences; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016103:Spinal Fractures / Q000209:etiology
keywords: Cervical spine injury; Child restraint system; Criminal liability; Legal medicine; Motor vehicle collision; Restraint misuse