Evenflo Booster Car Seats Create Risks of Deadly Injuries, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

Big Kid booster car seats made by the Evenflo Company Inc. can leave children with catastrophic injuries after side-impact crashes, according to a recently filed class-action lawsuit.

This case (case no. 1:20-cv-10336) alleges that Evenflo intentionally misled the public about the safety of its Big Kid booster seats, putting children’s lives at risk for the sake of profits.

Now, many are looking to hold Evenflo accountable for its allegedly false claims, deceptive marketing practices, and the harm they have caused.

Background: Evenflo Claims Big Kid Booster Car Seat Are Safe

Evenflo, one of the biggest child car seat companies in the U.S., markets its Big Kid booster seats as safe and “side-impact tested” for children weighing under 40 pounds.

The company also claims the Big Kid booster seats meet or exceed “all applicable federal safety standards and Evenflo’s side impact standards.” To date, more than 18 million Big Kid booster seats have been sold in the U.S.

ProPublica Investigation Uncovers “Grave Dangers” of Big Kid Booster Seats

Mounting evidence flies in the face of Evenflo’s claims about the safety of its Big Kid booster seats. In fact, a recent investigation conducted by ProPublica has revealed that:

• Eight years ago, an engineer urged Evenflo to stop selling Big Kid booster seats for children under 40 lbs.: In February 2012, a safety engineer at Evenflo reached out to high-ranking executives about the risks of these booster seats. The engineer warned that children under 40 lbs. would be safer in harness-style car seats, as existing regulations and recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) dictate. Despite research and experts’ recommendations, however, executives chose to ignore the engineer’s warnings on multiple occasions.
• Evenflo created lax safety tests and passing standards for its booster seats: Shockingly, there are currently no federal safety standards for side-impact testing of child car seats. While regulators have been working to put these standards in place for decades, the absence of safety testing standards gave Evenflo the leeway to not only design its own safety tests but to also determine what qualified as “passing.

Videos from ProPublica’s investigation have revealed that Evenflo tests show child-sized crash dummies being thrown from their booster seats. A top-level engineer at Evenflo has even stated in a deposition that “if real children moved that way [in a Big Kid booster seat during a side-impact collision], they could suffer catastrophic head, neck, and spinal injuries—or die.”

Soon after ProPublica released these findings, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform launched an investigation into Evenflo’s testing and marketing of Big Kid booster seats. That investigation is ongoing.

Evenflo Faces Booster Seat Class Action Lawsuit: The Allegations

Evenflo is now in the hot seat, facing a growing class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Filed on February 12, 2020, this case alleges that:

• Evenflo intentionally and falsely claimed its Big Kid booster seats were safe in side-impact collisions for children under 40 lbs.
• The company’s own safety engineers and tests demonstrated that these booster seats could result in children under 40 lbs. suffering severe, life-threatening injuries in side-impact crashes.
• Evenflo knew about these risks and dangers for at least eight years and failed to warn the public about them.
• Evenflo’s choice to prioritize profits over children’s safety has caused children to suffer serious harm and irreversible injuries.

Among the plaintiffs in the Evenflo car seat class-action lawsuit are the parents of twin girls. According to court documents, the parents purchased Big Kid booster seats for their girls in 2014 because of the numerous safety claims Evenflo made about these seats.

Tragically, in 2016, the family was involved in a side-impact crash while their girls, who weighed 37 pounds at the time, were riding in Big Kid booster seats. While one girl suffered traumatic brain injuries, the other sustained “internal decapitation” and has been paralyzed from the neck down ever since the crash.

Has Your Child Been Injured in a Crash While Using an Evenflo Big Kid Booster Seat?

If your child has been harmed by an Evenflo car seat or any dangerous product, the Amaro Law Firm is ready to help you. Our dangerous products attorneys are investigating the claims surrounding Evenflo, and we’re dedicated to helping families seek justice whenever children are hurt by unsafe products and companies’ deceptive marketing practices.

We invite you to learn more about your legal rights and options during a free, no-obligation consultation. This case evaluation can be the first step towards:

• Understanding your potential claim and how to move forward
• Holding Evenflo accountable for making misleading, dangerous safety claims about its Big Kid booster seats
• Seeking justice and recovery

Call (713) 352-7975 or Contact Our Firm
for Your FREE Consultation

Free virtual and mobile consultations are available to those who cannot visit our offices. We represent people from across the U.S. in several types of dangerous product cases.

Experienced and strategic, the lawyers at the Amaro Law Firm can help you protect your rights and navigate the recovery process. We know how to stand up to any opponent in and outside the courtroom, and we work relentlessly to help our clients recover. While money can never reverse permanent injuries and losses, we know that financial recoveries from dangerous product cases can help restore lives.