INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Car seats have saved nearly 250 children's lives, say authorities
(Representational)When Rebecca Tafaro Boyer's husband texted her a photo showing their nearly 3-month-old son asleep in his car seat, she
Boyer said that her husband never responded, but she assumed he did what he usually does when she's "nagging" him."He was probably laughing
at me," Boyer, of Memphis, Tennessee, told The Washington Post on Friday
"Whenever I bring something like that up, he usually says, 'Okay, honey,' rolls his eyes and then does it anyway."But it may have been the
key to keeping their son safe.Minutes later, Boyer said, David Boyer and their son, William, were involved in a car accident
David Boyer broke his right foot in three places
William never even woke up, his mother said.Rebecca Tafaro Boyer said she wrote about their experience last month on Facebook "because I was
so relieved that he had fixed the car seat and that it had worked properly
It's rare that you hear a story like this and it's good news."The post has been shared more than 35,000 times.Boyer, a nurse at St
Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, said it was her first day back to work since their son was born, and she had asked her husband
to send her regular updates - not because she didn't trust him but because she said she was "upset" about leaving their baby."So today, my
first day back from maternity leave, I demanded that my husband send me hourly updates and recaps on how baby William was handling his first
day away from mommy," she wrote in the July 14 Facebook post.So David Boyer sent an afternoon update, showing their infant asleep in his car
seat and texting: "Little man is out
We are running errands today."His wife quickly responded."My nagging wife reply was to correct William's position in the car seat - the
straps were too loose and the chest clip was way too low," she wrote on Facebook.Rebecca Tafaro Boyer said it was exactly 15 minutes later
when she received a panicked call from her husband
He and William were less than three miles from their home when a woman pulled in front of them, Boyer wrote, forcing her husband to slam on
the brakes at "nearly 50 miles per hour." The cars crashed into each other, but the Boyers' son was unharmed."My precious little bundle of
joy was so well restrained in his car seat, THAT HE DIDN'T EVEN WAKE UP," she wrote.Boyer said she rushed to the scene and the first thing
she asked was, "Did you fix the car seat"The answer, she said, was "yes."Boyer wrote on Facebook that she thinks "the reason my family is at
home sitting on the couch with a pair of crutches instead of down at the hospital is because of my annoying nagging mom voice."Though she
was "lamenting the loss of my beloved Volkswagen Jetta," Boyer wrote, she was also grateful for a number of things, above all her husband
who had "finally proven that yes indeed he is actually listening when I nag him!"Car accidents are one of the leading causes of death for
children up to 13 years old, but car seats have been shown to save lives, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety
But about 60 percent of the time, car seats are not used properly.NHTSA offers information on which car seats and booster seats to buy and
how to use them.Boyer said she has a message for other parents: "Take that extra 30 seconds every single time" to ensure that children are
strapped in correctly.She added that her family's story "goes to show that something can happen so quickly" and that checking the car seat
"can save your child's life."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a
