One Child`s Death is One Too Many!

Vehicle backover injuries and deaths are caused when someone, without a driver’s knowledge or awareness, is positioned behind a vehicle as the driver is backing out of a driveway or other parking spot. Most victims of vehicle backovers are children and the elderly. To add to the tragedy of backover injuries and deaths, the driver is often a relative or neighbor — or even the mother or father of the victim.

The Scope of the Problem
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7,475 children (ages 1 to 14) were treated in U.S. emergency departments between 2001 and 2003 for nonfatal backover-related injuries. A 2004 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study of non-traffic events (based on 1998 death certificates) determined that about 120 people a year are killed when drivers back over them. Most of the victims were under 5 years of age or over 60.

Since most of these heartbreaking incidents occur in private driveways rather than on the road, they are not typically included in traffic-crash fatality data. As a result, it’s hard for safety experts to agree on the exact number of children and others who fall victim to these tragedies each year.

Regardless, even one child who dies from a backover incident is one too many. For parents and all drivers, awareness and understanding of the problem are the first steps toward reducing the risk of backover deaths.

Every Vehicle Has Blind Spots
Drivers need to be aware that every vehicle has blind spots, which are located to the side and behind vehicles. In the case of a backover incident, the blind spot is the place behind your vehicle that you cannot see in the rear or side view mirrors — or even by craning your neck out the driver’s side window.

Consumer Reports recently conducted a test on blind spots using a 28-inch cone to demonstrate how difficult it can be for a driver to see a small child behind a vehicle. The test results showed that, generally speaking, the larger the vehicle, the larger the blind spot.

For example, of vehicles tested in the “family sedan” category, blind spots for a 5’8” driver ranged from 7 feet to 21 feet, depending on the model tested; of vehicles tested in the “midsized to large SUV” category, blind spots ranged from 11 feet to 31 feet.

The test also showed that blind spots for shorter drivers can be significantly larger. For example, Consumer Reports tested a 5’1” driver on identical models as the 5’8” driver. Blind spots for the shorter driver ranged from 14 feet to 29 feet in the “family sedan” category, and 22 feet to 45 feet in the “midsized to large SUV” category.
In addition to the height of the driver, vehicle size and vehicle type, other factors can contribute to the size of a blind spot. These include the elevation of the driver’s seat, and the shape of a vehicle’s windows and mirrors. Even the slope of a driveway can affect the size of the blind spot behind your vehicle — so take special care when backing out of unfamiliar driveways.

Technologies and Backover
At this time, no technology on the market is considered by experts to be foolproof in preventing backover incidents. The technologies that do exist, such as extra mirrors, sensing devices, and cameras, are often referred to as “parking aids.” Vehicle manufacturers design and market these devices to help prevent damage to a vehicle’s bumpers. If you have a vehicle equipped with a parking aid technology, take time to read your owner’s manual about the capabilities of the device.

Even if an accurate technology is developed to help prevent backover incidents, it’s important to remember that all technologies — no matter how sophisticated — are prone to failure. So how do you protect your children in your driveway or someone else’s?

Safety Tips for Parents
Keeping your children out of harm’s way requires ongoing education, supervision, and vigilance: there simply is no single fail-safe solution. However, safety experts advise employing the following strategies to help reduce the risk of a backover tragedy occurring:

• Ensure your children are properly supervised at all times, especially wherever motor vehicles might be present.
  
• Teach children not to play in, under, or around vehicles — ever.
  
• Always assume children could be present and carefully check the street, driveway, and area around your vehicle before backing out.
  
• Avoid making your driveway a “playground.” If you do allow children in this area, make sure that it’s only when there are no vehicles present. To further protect children who may be outside playing, separate the driveway from the roadway with a physical barrier to prevent any cars from entering.
  
• To prevent curious children from ever putting a vehicle in gear, never leave vehicles running, and keep all vehicles, even those in driveways and garages, locked up tight.
  
• When backing up, always know where all children are and have them stay in your full view and well away from your vehicle.
  
• Look behind you as you back out S-L-O-W-L-Y with your windows rolled down to listen for children who may have dashed behind your vehicle suddenly — and be prepared to stop!
  
• If you’re driving an SUV or truck, remember that the blind spot behind your vehicle can be especially large: use extreme care whenever you back up.

In addition, take the time to talk with your children about the reasons they need to be so careful around vehicles. Enlist older children to watch out for younger siblings who may not fully understand the reasoning behind your rules.

Making Everyone’s Driveway Safer
Finally, talk with neighborhood parents about backover incidents and ask them to teach their children not to play in or around any vehicle or driveway. By working together to promote awareness and more protective home and neighborhood environments, we can help to keep all our children safe.

Source: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov