Children Run Over by a Backing Vehicle

	32.1% of all children killed in the past 5 years were run over in a driveway

Each day parents take all kinds of precautions to insure that children are protected from injury or death should they be involved in a traffic accident. Few parents would ever envision that their own driveways are oftentimes more dangerous than highways. As vehicles get larger and larger, and Sport Utility Vehicles become more prevalent, the blind spot on vehicles increases. As such, the risk of running over a child in a driveway has increased. According to the Center for Disease Control, vehicle backing accidents resulted in more than 2,700 emergency room treatments between July 2000-June 2001. From January 1-October 21, 2002, there were 349 backover incidents involving children, 104 resulting in death.

Blind spots exist on all vehicles. A blind spot is defined as the area of the vehicle that you cannot see from the driver's seat. A blind spot can be as high as three feet. Consumer Reports reported that a 5 foot 8 inch driver would have to drive forward 12 feet to see a 28 inch traffic cone behind him if driving a Honda Accord. In a Chevrolet Avalanche, that same driver had to drive forward 29 feet. In a Ford Expedition the blind spot was 30 ft.

In the past five years, over 200 children have died in driveway, backover related incidents. By November 2003, 55 children had died in backover incidents. Most of the children were four years old or younger. At least 60% of the vehicles involved were light trucks, SUV's and minivans. Amazingly, however, according to Kids and Cars founder Janette Fennell, "not a single surveillance system in the US captures data on the number of children that are killed each year in backover incidents." According to the NHTSA, "traditionally we have not tracked non-traffic related fatalities of any kind." This is about to change. The Senate Commerce Committee voted in June 2003 on a bill to begin collecting data on how many backover deaths occur each year in driveways.

So, what is a driver to do if he checks his side mirrors, his rearview mirror and has turned around to look for potential threats? Purchase a vehicle with rear sensors. The technology is being used today as standard equipment on vehicles like the Lincoln Navigator which detects both moving and stationary objects up to 20 feet behind the vehicle. An alarm inside the vehicle sounds when the vehicle is backing up and gets closer to an object. The alarm beeps faster as the object becomes closer. Ford claims however that the feature is for convenience and should not be considered a safety feature according to Ford Product design engineer Bob Kwiecinski. Nisan is offering an optional camera that shows behind the vehicle in its InfinityQ45 sedan. Honda has a standard camera system on its Acura MDX SUV and charges $900 for it on the Honda Pilot SUV. A growing after market industry sells various alarms, sensors and cameras to prevent backover incidents.

Here are a sample of manufacturers that have products to help prevent backover accidents.