Vehicle Safety Statistics | Backovers

What could be more horrible than a mother backing her car out of the driveway, running over, and killing her own child? Rebecca Woodruff, age 4, died this way. The mother called 911, asked for an ambulance. The Houston dispatcher sent a fire truck instead. Critical life-saving moments were lost and the child died.

Every week in America, there are more than fifty backover accidents involving children. The average age of the child is one-year old. The majority of the time, a parent or relative is driving the vehicle. Mostly these accidents happen with larger vehicles like a truck, van, or SUV. Of the fifty children run over, two of them die.

  • The predominant age of victims is one year olds. (12-23 months)
  • Over 60% of backing up incidents involved a larger size vehicle. (truck, van, SUV)
  • Tragically, in over 70% of these incidents, a parent or close relative is behind the wheel.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study reports over 2400 children are treated in hospital emergency rooms every year due a child being struck by or rolled over by a vehicle moving in reverse.

There is a large area called the blindzone, where it is impossible to see a small child. Legislation has been on the books since 2008 to install rearview cameras in all new vehicles, and the law has recently been passed requiring all new vehicles be equipped with rearview camera systems by 2018. The United States Department of Transportation reports 17,000 injuries each year from backovers and over 200 deaths. Around half of these deaths are children under five-years old. Sadly, these deaths are preventable if rearview cameras were installed in all vehicles.

https://www.kidsandcars.org/back-overs.html
https://www.cnn.com/2013/04/11/politics/backover-accidents/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/over-in-an-instant/article/How-can-this-happen-4833168.php#/0