Keeping Kids Safe in Non-Traffic Auto Accidents
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President Bush today signed the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act.
It attempts to prevent, albeit too slowly, many of the accidents we report about here that happen in a family's driveway - that is accidents where a child is run over because a relative can't see around their SUV.
Cameron was a two-year-old who was killed by his father in the driveway five years ago. 230 children were killed in 2007 in these non-traffic auto accidents.
Since then his family and others who've had the same experience, have worked to have the act passed.
It will require auto manufacturers to do about four things.
The average age of the victim is between 12 and 23 months. And in the majority of cases it is a parent, relative of close friend who is behind the wheel of the SUV.
*The Act required NHTSA to begin crafting rules that would require power windows and panels to automatically reverse direction if there is something like a child's head or pet obstructing the path of the window or panel.
*During a backup every vehicle has a blind spot, some are more than 50 feet long according to Consumer Reports. Cameras mounted in the rear of the car show a driver who or what is in its way with this back-over prevention technology.
*Lastly the act requires that the vehicle service brake be engaged in order to shift out of park. That means an adult must have their foot on the break peddle so the vehicle does not unintentionally shift into reverse or neutral allowing the car to roll downhill with a litter person inside. The legislation also establishes a database on injuries and deaths in non-traffic and non-crash events as well as a child safety information program to update parents on these hazards and the new technology to prevent them.
Expect the phase in to take from four to eight years.