COLUMNS

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John E. Sununu: Washington must mandate safer vehicles to save kids’ lives

By SENS. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON AND JOHN E. SUNUNU
Another View

NEARLY every other day, a child dies in the United States from a completely preventable accident, backed-over by a driver — in most cases a parent or other relative — who couldn’t see behind their vehicle, strangled in a power window, or killed when an automobile inadvertently shifts into gear.

These tragedies are heart-wrenching, not only due to the unimaginable grief these families endure, but also because they are preventable. Today, the technology exists that can save children’s lives at a relatively low cost. However, many of these simple and affordable technologies are offered only in a few high-end vehicles, or as an after-market purchase.

We have met with families from our states of New York and New Hampshire and from across the country and listened as they shared the personal, painful experience of losing a child. The Gulbransens are one such family. Two-year-old Cameron was killed when he slipped outside unbeknownst to his parents and babysitter, and toddled behind the SUV his father was backing into the driveway. It is in the memory of Cameron and the hundreds of children like him that we introduced bipartisan legislation to take steps we know can reduce these tragedies. The Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act will help to ensure that America’s cars are properly equipped to prevent these tragedies from happening to others.

We are working to make all new passenger motor vehicles safer in three important ways.

First, requiring a detection system to alert drivers to the presence of a child behind a vehicle. This will prevent back-up incidents involving death and injury, especially to small children and the disabled.

Today, blind zones prevent even the most conscientious drivers from seeing small children behind them. Data show that most backover incidents involve children under the age of three — toddlers who are hidden from view by a vehicle’s gaping blind zone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that nearly 7,500 children were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms between 2001 and 2003 for backover injuries. The nonprofit group Kids and Cars, which tracks these incidents, says at least two children are killed each week in backovers.

Every vehicle without backover-prevention technology has a blind zone behind it. The publishers of Consumer Reports magazine measure the blind zones behind every vehicle the magazine tests. They have found dangerously large blind zones — as much as 51 feet long. Even popular family sedans have blind areas as large as 24 feet. Much like air bags, now a standard safety feature on vehicles, backover detection will continue to evolve if required in all vehicles, driving down the price and improving the technology.

Second, ensuring that power windows automatically reverse direction when they detect an obstruction — preventing children from being trapped, injured or killed when a car’s power windows are in use.

Third, requiring brakeshift interlocks, a safety feature already found in many vehicles. This technology requires the driver to apply the brake before a vehicle can be shifted out of park and put into gear, thereby preventing it from unintentionally rolling away.

We also need to make parents more aware of the dangers vehicles can pose to their children. Our bill establishes a child safety information program that will collect non-traffic, non-crash incident data to inform parents about these hazards to kids and provide suggestions to mitigate these dangers.

Providing for our children’s safety shouldn’t be a luxury item when purchasing a vehicle. We have the technology today to prevent thousands of deaths and injuries from occurring, literally, at our doorsteps. With modest, cost-effective steps, we will have safer cars and safer kids across America.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York. Sen. John E. Sununu is a Republican U.S. Senator from New Hampshire.