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Family sues car seat maker after child injured in crash

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A tentative trial date has been set in a family’s lawsuit against car seat manufacturer, Evenflo.

The trial is expected to begin in August 2017.

The family believes that the company markets a booster seat that didn’t properly protect their daughter in a 2014 crash that left her with lifelong injuries.

An attorney told Action News Jax that the company should help pay medical bills as well as for the care that the girl will need for years because of injuries she suffered in the crash.

The 5-year-old girl suffered a permanent spinal injury two years ago in a crash on Jacksonville’s Southside.

The driver who turned in front of the family was cited for the crash. The family is also suing the driver, and asking for a jury trial.

The lawsuit said Evenflo routinely markets booster seats for children who are not yet big enough to use them, and the seats in which the girl was sitting should have had a five-point harness.

The family said the child was properly restrained in her booster seat. The family’s attorney Adam Langino, said the girl was ejected from her seat.

"Unfortunately, the young girl suffered a catastrophic injury to her cervical spine. We hope that we will be able to provide for her medical care (that) frankly, she will need for a long period of time," Langino said.

Langino said the parents believed the seat was safe and only had the information about the seat that the manufacture provided with the product

Evenflo’s attorneys did not have a comment, but said the company will provide one later Tuesday.

This all comes on  National Child Passenger Safety Week. Several agencies, including the Florida Highway Patrol, will check car seats for free.

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