A Sunday morning 12 years ago is still fresh in the mind of Christine Miller.
The California mother-of-six had buckled her three-year-old son Kyle into his booster car seat, heading for a trip to San Antonio in May 2005.
On the way there, a car ran through a red light and slammed into the Miller’s car, sending the van flipping off the road several times until it came to a stop in a ditch.
Miller said when she turned around to check on her children, Kyle and his booster seat had been thrown through the window and landed more than 30 feet away.
The little boy died in the accident and Miller blames herself for not knowing that her son was not in the correct car seat for his age.
Miller shared an emotional post on the 12th anniversary of her child’s death about how she believes her son would still be alive if she had used a five-point harness.
Now Miller wants to warn other parents of the importance of child car seat safety to prevent another family from going through what she did.
Christine Miller’s son Kyle died in a car accident in May 2005. Kyle was three years old and was in a booster car seat. Pictured: Miller and Kyle together before the accident
Miller is using her story to warn other parents of car seat safety and the importance of placing your child in the proper seat for their age. Pictured: Kyle as a toddler in his booster seat
Miller retold the day of the accident on her website, giving other parents a glimpse into the tragic moment.
She wrote: ‘I raced to Kyle and when I got to him I almost collapsed, he was laying on his back with blood pouring out of his ears and mouth.
‘I started screaming and crying “NO!” It was like waking up into the most horrible nightmare. I also knew from the moment I saw him that he had already gone, I felt it in my heart.’
Miller said her son’s death is still fresh in her mind, although the accident happened more than a decade ago.
In the recent Facebook post, Miller wrote: ‘Losing Kyle was like being plunged straight into hell, a pain and agony beyond description.
‘I’ve come to realize that this kind of loss is not something you ever get over or make peace with, it’s something you eventually learn how to contain in a box of fire inside your heart, and keep a lid on so that you can function on a day to day basis.
‘But sometimes certain things will open that box, a song, a smell, a flash of a memory and it rages and burns through you anew.
‘It’s a pain I will carry with me until the day I die and can finally be with my sweet son again. I think the hardest part of it all is knowing [how] easily preventable it was. That’s the dagger that twists in my heart.’
Car accidents are the leading cause of death for children in the United States and most of these fatalities are preventable, according to the CDC.
The Journal of Pediatrics released a report in May that stated 43 percent of children killed in accidents weren’t properly restrained at the time.
When used correctly, car seats can reduce the risk of death and injury by 71 percent.
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In a Facebook post, Miller said: ‘Losing Kyle was like being plunged straight into hell, a pain and agony beyond description. I think the hardest part of it all is knowing [how] easily preventable it was’. Pictured: Kyle as a toddler before the accident
The Journal of Pediatrics released a report in May that stated 43 percent of children killed in accidents weren’t properly restrained at the time. Pictured: Miller and her family in May
WHAT CAR SEAT IS RIGHT FOR YOUR CHILD?
The type of car seats children use depends on their age and size.
Here are the recommend seats for age groups:
Infants and toddlers
Until the age of two, this age group should be using rear-facing car seats.
Toddlers and preschoolers
Children who have outgrown rear-facing seats should be in forward-facing seats with a harness. They should be in these seats at least for four years old to six years old.
School-aged children
When these children reach the height and weight maximum for harness seats, they can use belt-positioning boosters.
Older children
Depending on the child’s size, between the ages of eight and 12 children can use the vehicle’s lap and shoulder seat belt.
Children under the age of 13 should always be in the backseat.
Source: Healthy Children and American Academy of Pediatrics
Miller wants parents of toddlers to use 5-point harness seats instead of graduating them to booster seats before they are ready.
Miller added: ‘Had I just known about the dangers of booster seats for toddlers, had somebody warned me, I would have put him in a 5-point harness car seat and that simple difference would have changed everything.
‘It would have saved his life. It would have saved me from going through hell.’
Laura Bower, a child passenger safety technician, said these seats do a better job of restraining young children.
A five-point harness seat is installed into the car and instead of using the vehicle’s original seat belt as a restraint, the car seat comes with its own harness.
A booster seat is installed to the car but uses the vehicle’s seat belt as the only restraint.
Bower said: ‘Until the age of six, children don’t have the maturity to sit perfectly still in a booster seat.
‘They shouldn’t be wiggling around in the seat, reaching for toys. If they aren’t sitting properly in the event of the crash, then they aren’t protected.’
Bower said she recommends children to be in a five-point harness car seat until they are six years old.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that toddlers should be placed in forward-facing seats with harnesses until they are at least four years old.
Miller launched several organizations in honor of her son, all dedicated to increasing awareness about car seat safety.
Parents do need to be better educated on child car seat safety, claim researchers at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
They claim if Americans improve their habits of properly restraining a child by 10 percent, it will prevent 232 child deaths a year.
In 2015, an alarming study found that 95 percent of parents didn’t know how to use a car seat, effectively endangering their child.
The majority of these parents – 91 percent – are deemed to have ‘serious errors’, in the way they put their child in the car, researchers at Oregon Health and Science University revealed.
Researchers found there were a number of factors that contributed to a higher rate of car seat misuse.
Among those factors were lower socioeconomic status, lower educational attainment and non-English primary language.