Pay Attention and End Driveway Deaths

Oct 11 2007 by Courtney Messenbaugh

10/11/2007

Vigilance, Equipment Help Keep Kids Safe

By: Courtney Messenbaugh

Since my son was born, I’ve become acutely aware of the many things in this world that could harm my little guy. Being a card-carrying Mother Proofer has caused me to focus even more on the many precarious situations that could arise when cars and kids come together.

In this vein, I’ve become a bit rattled recently by an unnervingly high number of news stories about children being run over in their own driveways. Luckily, there’s someone at work trying to stop these kinds of incidents from happening.

Janette Fennell of Kids and Cars has made it her life’s work to track incidents like these, urge the government to take them more seriously and get Congress to enact legislation aimed at lowering the number of these incidents. Of course, a big part of her work includes educating and nudging all of us drivers to be more responsible. Janette has been incredibly successful so far, but she is quick to say that there is still an enormous amount of work that needs to be done.

First, we need to educate ourselves. The most common types of non-traffic vehicular accidents are “backovers” and “frontovers,” and the frequency of both is increasing, Janette said. As you’ve probably deduced from the names, these accidents occur when a driver is pulling in or out of a driveway and hits a child. Most of the children involved in front- and backover accidents are 1 year old. As any parent of a little whippersnapper knows, children at this age are very mobile but have very little concept of personal safety. They don’t understand that the driver might not see them and they don’t know to move out of the car’s way.

Janette and her team estimate that at least 50 backovers occur in the U.S. every week. Of these 50, approximately 48 end up in the emergency room and two of those kids die. Do I need to say that again to get your jaw to drop on the floor, as mine did, or was once sufficient? I’m guessing that for any parent, hearing this once is all too sufficient.

Frontovers occur at a rate of about one a week, Janette said. To makes matters worse, she said these estimates are probably on the low end (due to the lack of NHTSA data collection, which Janette is pushing for), and the real numbers may be three times larger. The last sobering statistic I’ll share with you is that, in more than 70 percent of these accidents, a parent or other close relative is the one behind the wheel.

Ugh. My stomach has been in knots since I started working on this article. I swear I’m not a fear-mongering mommy, but this is just too important to ignore; we must take action.

What you can do: First of all, make sure you walk ALL the way around your car before getting in it. This is crucial! Second, never assume that children are being supervised by another adult. Make sure they are safely in the care of an adult, then make sure again and perhaps even a third time before moving your car. Lastly, Janette strongly urges people to consider adding technology (or buying a car that already has it) such as cross view mirrors, audible collision detectors or a backup camera to their vehicle to help increase awareness.

I implore you to join me in doing as Janette says. Together, we could save several little lives. To learn more about Kids and Cars, visit http://www.kidsandcars.org.

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