Failure to properly care for one's passengers can lead to serious consequences for a motor vehicle operator if harm should befall them. Whether it's reckless driving or lack of care for a minor, accident reconstruction is necessary in some cases to determine if an injury or death is the direct result of carelessness.
This is especially the case when it comes to children, as special restraints may be used improperly or not at all. Police in New York filed charges against a woman after crash reconstruction found that her lack of care for a 12-year-old passenger resulted in his death. The vehicle she was operating struck an SUV head-on, and the driver had not restrained her passenger in a child safety seat.
Another incident in Pennsylvania left a 1-year-old dead after a drunken driver collided with a minivan. Accident reconstruction showed that, while the child was not restrained in the van at the time of the incident, the other driver was at fault for the collision and her death, due to other circumstances. A safety seat was present in the vehicle at the time of the crash, but the infant had been removed for feeding purposes, relieving the minivan's passengers of fault.