South Carolina Child Injury Lawyer Blog

On a cold night in late December, a car carrying 4 teens was traveling at high speed down West Shiloh Unity Road in Lancaster, SC. The fatal car crash occurred after the car took a 45 MPH turn at speeds in excess of 119 Miles per hour. The car apparently went airborne, snapping a telephone pole and then came to rest approximately a football fields length away. During the crash, a 15-year old girl was killed after she was ejected from the car, this as a result of her seat belt not being properly fastened. The other two teens in the car were injured and the boy himself suffered severe head and neck injuries and underwent surgery at Carolinas Medical Center. The boy was charged with Reckless Homicide and a violation of Restricted License.

The crash occurred on Dec 29th, 2009 and investigators believe that the driver's inexperience and the high speed of the car were the primary factors involved in the incident. The driver, 16 had a restricted drivers permit. Under SC law, permit holders are only allowed to drive between 6 am and 6pm, carrying a maximum of two minors in the car. In the case of this crash, both of those restrictions were violated by the teen boy. The boy plead guilty to Reckless Homicide and Violation of a Restricted License. He will be evaluated by the Department of Juvenile Justice and then be sentenced. He will lose his Driver's License for a duration of 5 years and will be under house arrest, monitored by an electronic bracelet. After sentencing he could also serve time with the Department of Juvenile Justice until he is 21.

Excessive speed and the inexperience of young drivers are often cited factors in fatal crashes. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration states that almost 32% of crashes are caused by drivers aged 21 and younger. A Key factor in this case was the apparent ignorance of the boy's parents of his whereabouts the night of the crash. Charleston child injury lawyers want to urge the public to pay special care to their child's behavior and activities when they are just learning to operate a motor vehicles.

Sources: The State, " Lancaster teen pleads guilty in death of girl, 15" Kimberly Dick, The Rock Hill Herald

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration

South Carolina child death lawyers advise state citizens and locals to demand their representatives to install the Child Death Review board in their local community. A child's death is traumatizing for the family and heartbreaking for the community. Many times these deaths could have been easily prevented. In order to make proactive changes many states and local communities have formed a Child Death Review system that will help pinpoint changes parents, guardians, and members of the community can make to prevent future child fatalities.

In 1978 a multi-agency review of unexplained child deaths began in Los Angeles, California. In 1997 there were multi-disciplinary teams in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, that investigated children deaths. Typically these teams included a coroner, social services, law enforcement, medical representatives, child protective services, and mental health.

Today some states have expanded their multi-disciplinary teams from the original statewide team. These states have formed the teams that work within a community and then report their findings to the state multi-disciplinary team. The state team serves as a data collection team that reviews information and then suggests new legislation to state representatives and areas for law enforcement to focus on. This system has proven to work best because it is unrealistic for a state team to conduct a thorough investigation of all child deaths throughout the entire state. Local teams vary due to county population size and city population size. Sometimes one team will oversee multiple counties, as well as multiple teams may be needed for large counties.

These teams have been proven to be effective, because they can spend more time conducting a detailed investigation of the death of a child than law enforcement can. These findings are then are reviewed and transformed into precautionary tips that are released to the community. Child fatalities are typically preventable and the team's tips remind locals of easy precautions they can take that can save a child's life. If your community does not have a Child Death Review system currently in action write your local representatives and request them to look into the system.

Source: Injury Prevention Web-AInjury Prevention Policy- "Child Death Review and Injury Prevention."March 23, 2010.