A 9-year-old girl was killed in a Lake Forest car accident on May 24, 2009 after the Chevrolet Tahoe she was a passenger in spun out of control and struck a light pole. According to an article in The Orange County Register, a BMW clipped the Tahoe in the rear as the cars were traveling in the same direction on El Toro Road near Pino. The 9-year-old girl, whose name has not been released, was reported to have been ejected from the Tahoe. Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials said the fatal car accident occurred when both drivers were trying to make a lane change.

The girl died at the scene. Both drivers apparently tested below the legal limit for alcohol. The girl was in the Tahoe with her aunt’s friend, who was driving at the time. The driver of the BMW sustained minor personal injuries.

My heart goes out to the family of this little girl for their sudden, tragic and heartbreaking loss. I offer my deepest sympathies to them. Please keep them in your prayers.

According to California Highway Patrol’s 2007 Statewide Integrated Traffic Reporting System, there was one fatality and 211 injuries involving car accidents in Lake Forest. In Orange County as a whole, there were 178 fatalities and 14,185 injuries as a result of car collisions in 2007.

This newspaper report does not say the young girl was not buckled up. However, going by the official report and some of the comments to this news article, the girl may or may not have been ejected from the Tahoe. But, the question still remains – did her seat belt work the way it was supposed to? If I were a member of her family, I would retain the services of an experienced Orange County product defect law firm to determine whether the seat restraint system in the Chevy Tahoe failed. Skilled car accident lawyers will also be able to determine how or why the collision occurred and who should be held accountable for it.

In many of these fatal car crash, traffic accident investigators tend to assume that if a person was ejected, they probably weren’t buckled up. But very often, that’s not accurate. There are number of ways a seat belt system can fail. Many of the “side release” seat belts are prone to what is called “false latching.’ Many “end release” belts are also subject to unlatching in car accidents. We have seen many cases where seat belt mounts, buckles, webbing and grabbers have failed. Bisnar | Chase has also settled many cases with auto makers where we alleged that their seat belt or restraint system failed and caused serious personal injury or death.

In such Orange County car accidents, the deceased victim needs to be examined for evidence of seat belt bruising and marking. The webbing needs to be microscopically examined for grabber marks, bloodstains and other marks and foreign objects that would indicate the seat belt was in use at the time of the accident. The Tahoe should also be preserved in its current condition, unaltered, so it can carefully examined by an expert for seat belt defects, product defects and other evidence.