Mom’s powerful photo of wrecked car shows the importance of car seat safety

Most parents know that kids need to be buckled into their car seats every time they are in a vehicle. Experts recommend ensuring the seats and straps are properly secured and adjusted. One mom is thankful she heeded that advice and wants to make sure other parents do the same.

Jenna Rabberman, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was driving with her two young boys last year when another car hit their vehicle. Her 2015 Honda CRV was totaled, but her little ones—ages six months and nearly three years old at the time—escaped without a scratch.

Rabberman posted a single, powerful photo on her Facebook page that shows the mangled remains of her vehicle—and the completely unscathed car seats.

“My boys escaped without a scratch but the paramedics told me it could have been very different had I not taken the extra 2 minutes to be sure they were buckled correctly,” she wrote. “I will be fine, my kids are fine, everything else can be replaced.”

Although she wrote the post in September, it continues to garner attention. So far, the photo has attracted more than 75,000 comments and 320,000 shares. Rabberman hopes that the picture will save lives.

“THIS is why you buckle your kids into their car seats correctly every SINGLE time,” she wrote. “Even when they scream because the straps are tight. Even when they complain about the chest clip or being rear facing. We stopped for milk on the way home from preschool yesterday. We were minutes from home. Another car slammed into us. You never think it will happen to you.”

Car Seat Safety

The CDC reports that 35 percent of children ages 12 years and younger who died in a crash in 2015 were not buckled. Not only should you buckle up your kids (and yourself) even if you are just driving down the road, you should double-check the seats to make sure they are installed correctly.

You can have your child’s car seat inspected by a child passenger safety technician at no charge by attending a Safe Kids Coalition event in your area. In addition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration maintains a directory of inspection stations.

In case you’re wondering, the car seats Rabberman’s kids were in at the time of the crash were a Chicco Keyfit 30 infant seat and a Graco 4Ever. Both are rear-facing seats, Rabberman said on Facebook.