An Irish mum is pleading with other parents to reassess their children's car safety after her family were involved in a horrifying accident.
Aoife Flynn was travelling with her husband Carl and their children over the Easter weekend when they came perilously close to tragedy.
'It was the most frightening experience of my life." she wrote in a public post that has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook and Instagram.
'A stupid 18 yr-old driving way too fast on a country road lost control of his car and slammed into us. The impact was so hard that it lifted our car off the ground.
'Carl's quick reactions meant the car hit us side on and not head on. We all walked away with only some minor bruising. Most importantly the kids (3 and 1) were unharmed. The paramedics at the scene confirmed what I knew, the fact they were strapped in tight without bulky jackets saved them from serious injury or worse, that I can't bring myself to even think about. Both cars were write-offs.'
Aoife is thankful her family escaped unharmed but says the experience has left her with 'horrible flash backs and very scary nightmares about how much worse it could have been'.
'I will never forget the scared little faces of both kids as we dragged them from our wrecked car.' she continued.
'Lailah especially as it was her side of the car that was hit, the air bags beside her were released. To put an end to this and put it behind me, I needed to tell my story and share these three important points about car safety.
1: Always strap your kids tightly into their car seats. They should never be able to escape the straps.
2: Never ever leave coats on the kids while in their car seats. No puffy jackets, no snowsuits, no body warmers. If they are cold put a blanket on them. Watch this video and you will see why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=xOBUBIf1GL0&app=desktop
3: Rear facing is the safest way for them to be. Davin (20 months and above average height) was rear facing that day and would have felt very little impact compared to Lailah who was not rear facing.
As you can see from the picture associated with this post (below) she is going back rear facing. Again above average height for a 3.5 yr old but this seat will keep her rear till 25kg.
