An hour south of Pittsburgh sits the township of Redstone, Pennsylvania, which includes a number of rural villages. It’s not a particularly prosperous area; according to the U.S. Census, about a fifth of the township’s residents live in poverty.

So when tragedy hits there, it hits especially hard. And it hit with a vengeance this past Saturday when two cars collided head-on. A 28-year-old woman was killed in the violent collision and a three-year-old girl in the woman’s car “suffered major injuries,” a news report stated.

The little girl was taken to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Her medical condition was not included in the short article on the accident.

The 34-year-old driver of the other vehicle escaped the wreck with what were described as minor injuries. A 40-year-old passenger in his car sustained major injuries for which she was hospitalized.

According to the report, the 28-year-old drove into the oncoming lane on State Route 40 just after 11 in the morning. The Uniontown man tried unsuccessfully to avoid her vehicle.

No one in the two vehicles wore a seatbelt, and the little girl was not properly secured in a child safety seat.

Hopefully, the girl has a full and swift recovery, and hopefully, she and all other survivors will always buckle up in the future.

In similar situations in which a person not wearing a seat belt has been injured in a car accident, the person responsible for the crash has argued that damages should be reduced. Pennsylvania law requires seat belt use and child restraint seats, but the failure to buckle up can’t be used to reduce a person’s recovery.

That is simply one example of how an experienced Pittsburgh personal injury attorney uses knowledge of the law to maximize your deserved compensation.