Vehicle Back Up Accidents Leading Cause of Fatalities Among Children

One of the leading causes of non-traffic child fatalities occurs from back over accidents. Between the years of 2001 and 2006, these types of accident accounted for almost half of all non-traffic fatalities involving children. Each year children are injured and killed because drivers (in some cases, parents) don’t see them while backing up. A contributing factor is that larger vehicles have larger blind zones than passenger cars. The longer and taller a vehicle is, the larger the blind zone. A blind zone is the area behind a vehicle that a person can’t see from the driver’s seat.

Your best defense against backover accidents is to get out of your vehicle and check behind it just before you back up. If kids are nearby, make sure you can see them while backing up.