Back-overs

Reader's Digest had a really sad story in the latest issue (not yet available online) about back-overs -- where a child is injured or killed by being backed-over with a car by a family member.

It's really sad and they noted a great organization called Kids and Cars.org that's trying to raise awareness. It's responsible for 50% of all non-traffic fatalities of children under 5 years of age and growing.

The sad thing was that they were vilifying the car manufacturers for not doing more. I will concede that this could be considered a "design flaw" to have such poor visibility behind cars, but manufacturers have resisted calling backup cameras and sensors "safety" features recognizing that they aren't foolproof and to call them "safety" features just opens them up for lawsuits.

One company in the article even sued Nissan because the salesman wasn't more pushy in trying to get them to get the camera on their Lexus. (My words.)

Apparently, it's common for a child to go back out to a car to say bye again to a parent who's leaving.

I do feel bad for these parents and I pray that this never happens to me and I would hope that, especially after reading this, my wife and I are really vigilant, and that we pay attention to things like the beeping noise that we hear any time an exterior door is opened in our house, and that we back in our cars (so we're pulling forward when leaving would all work towards protecting our child(ren).

The worst part of the story was a grandpa who accidentally backed over a child. I just can't stop picturing the thought of the dad getting the call from his wife telling him nothing except to come home and him finding the car backed partway down the driveway, the grandfather laying on the ground in the fetal position sobbing and his wife holding their son wrapped in a towel, refusing to let her husband see him, just saying instead that he should picture the child as he was. I feel so awful for that grandfather and so amazed and the will of the mom to bear all that alone, to even shield her husband from it. Wish I could link to the article, but they don't have it on their website yet.