THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 14, 1994 TAG: 9411140064
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines
If.
The little word tears at L. V. Lowmack Jr. and his wife, Michelle. If they had done this, if they had done that, would their 21-month-old daughter, Mekia Eternity, be alive today?
They thought they did all the right things: Strapped Mekia into a new child-safety seat. Secured the child seat in the middle of the back seat of their car - the safest spot, the experts said. Routed the seat belt through the base of the child seat.
Now the Lowmacks aren't sure of anything. Not after a car cut in front of them on a western Suffolk road, forcing their car to skid across the median, flip several times and land upside down in a ditch.
Only L. V. Lowmack remained conscious in the silence after the car stopped rolling. ``The first thing I saw - after the shock, I guess - was the car seat hanging,'' he said. ``I saw the baby's face.''
He didn't understand. Why was Mekia's face so close to his, in the front seat? How did her car seat flop so far forward?
It wasn't until six hours later, after L. V. and Michelle had been flown by helicopter ambulance to a hospital, that they learned their daughter had died at the accident scene. The medical examiner determined she had broken her neck. There wasn't a visible scratch on her.
Then, they saw a newspaper article about how the design of some new seat belts isn't good for holding child-safety seats. Safety experts say they've been warning people about this for years, but not many listen.
The article made the Lowmacks wonder about their daughter's death. And it made them think about all the other children riding in car seats.
It happened so fast,'' L. V. Lowmack said.
They were on their way back from visiting his family in Georgia, slipping into the western end of Suffolk just after daylight on Oct. 11.
L. V. was on a week's leave from his communications post at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Michelle and Mekia had been evacuated the month before because of the Cuban and Haitian refugee problem. They were staying with her parents in Norfolk, looking for Navy housing and getting around in a rented 1994 Pontiac Grand Am.
They took several breaks on the overnight drive. L. V., 26, and Michelle, 29, took turns driving the red, four-door car while Mekia slept in the back seat.
The Lowmacks happily admit to spoiling Mekia. They ``overdressed'' her, filled her room with stuffed toys, and bought her a white canopy bed when she was just 6 months old and still in a crib. They take comfort in her being a happy child during her short life, whether playing by herself or with the other children in her day-care facility in Guantanamo Bay.
She loved McDonald's french fries, she loved the ubiquitous Barney, and she loved her car seat. She would climb into it even when her father was just washing the car.
``She was always in her car seat,'' Michelle said. ``I was car-seat conscious.''
Chalk that up to previous work in a government safety office in New York, going through accident reports. It made her paranoid about safety, Michelle said.
As the Lowmacks entered Suffolk, they were thinking about being just 30 minutes from home. Suddenly, a car passing on their right cut in front of them. Michelle was driving, and she swerved to avoid a collision. They skidded out of control across the median, screamed as they narrowly missed an oncoming 18-wheeler, then watched the world spin outside their windows.
Michelle shattered the windshield with her forehead, despite her seat belt and an air bag. L. V. severely damaged his left thumb, although his seat belt saved him from further harm. Rescue workers were on the scene within minutes, but could do nothing for Mekia.
A few days later, the girl was buried in a white casket marbled with gold. Her favorite purple Barney puppet lay next to her.
Seventeen days after the accident, the grief-stricken parents still were having difficulty getting out of bed in the morning, much less doing anything else. Then, they saw the article, and started wondering about seat belts and child-safety seats.
For years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, child-safety seat manufacturers and others have been wondering the same thing - and warning people.
Car manufacturers, weighing safety and comfort, continually redesign their safety equipment so more people will use it. Seat-belt anchors, the buckles that receive and lock the belt, are increasingly being moved forward 3 to 7 inches away from the seat back.
This helps the belt fit across the hips more comfortably and safely, since it's less likely to ride up onto the soft abdomen where it can cause internal injuries in a sudden stop.
Modern seat belts move with the wearer and tighten up only in an emergency.
These changes are good for adults and older youths, but not for children in car seats.
The belts that give with the wearer's movements may not tighten up quickly enough to hold the car seat, or not at all in sharp turns or during other maneuvers where there's no collision. Special locking clips or other hardware, sometimes even a whole new belt, may be required to latch a child-safety seat securely.
When car seats are attached to seat-belt anchors that are placed closer to the center of the seat, they're more in danger of toppling forward in an accident.
``We've warned against that,'' said Carol M. Dingledy, a spokeswoman for Cosco Inc. in Columbus, Ind., a car-seat manufacturer. ``It just allows the whole car seat to come that far forward.
``One of the problems is the car manufacturers have to meet the comfort and convenience standards for adults. . . . But it's not best for child seats.''
The Society of Automotive Engineers in Warrendale, Pa., recognized the problem in 1990 when it proposed standards aimed at a compromise between the differing seat-belt needs of adults and children in safety seats. The International Standards Organization, another industry group, is working to come up with a system where child-safety seats won't need seat belts at all.
Tethers that secured the top of the car seats used to be standard equipment, but few people used them. They haven't been required since 1986, and now only Evenflo still offers them, according to the NHTSA.
The Lowmacks thought their rented Grand Am had the forward-placed seat-belt anchors, but the NHTSA and an area Pontiac dealer said they were in the traditional location, jutting out from between the seat back and bottom.
Cosco Inc. warns in its instruction booklets against using its seats with these anchors. The NHTSA has sent brochures to pediatricians' offices and issued consumer advisories for years, warning people to check their seat belts when using child-safety seats.
The agency estimates that correcting the misuse of safety seats would've saved 55 of the 572 children under 5 killed in traffic accidents in 1992. About 60 percent of those killed weren't in safety seats at all.
``All drivers need to know that it is vitally important to read both the car-seat manufacturer's instructions and the car-owner's manual before installing a child-safety seat,'' said Dr. Ricardo Martinez, NHTSA administrator. ``It may mean the difference in saving your child's life in a crash.''
About a month before Mekia was killed, a similar accident took the life of a 3-year-old Maryland girl outside Washington.
Strapped into the front seat, she struck the dashboard of her mother's car in a head-on crash. The girl's family - including her grandfather, who's the medical director for Maryland's Emergency Medical Services - set up a foundation to warn people about seat belts and child-safety seats. It's named for the girl, Dana: the Driver's Appeal for National Awareness.
The Lowmacks still don't know why their daughter died, but they're trying to find a reason, something to make her death mean something. They wonder aloud if Mekia's purpose was to highlight this issue.
``People are out there driving with their kids,'' Michelle said through tears.
``We can never bring 'Kia back,'' L. V. said, ``but we don't want this to happen to anyone else.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Although 21-month-old Mekia Eternity Lowmack was strapped into a
car-safety seat, she died of a broken neck in a car accident in
October near Suffolk.
Color staff photo by BILL TIERNAN
After the accident that killed their daughter, Michelle and L. V.
Lowmack Jr. saw a newspaper article about how the design of some new
seat belts isn't good for holding child-safety seats. Safety experts
say they've been warning people about the problem for years.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC FATALITY CAR SEATS CHILD SAFETY SEAT by CNB