On behalf of Smiley & Smiley, LLP posted in Car Accidents on Wednesday, September 25, 2013.
If technology was readily available that would make cars safer for drivers and pedestrians, wouldn't it only make sense for that technology to be installed on all new cars? That is a question that was once asked about air bags. The same question was also asked about seat belts before that. Now, consumer safety advocates are asking this very question about equipment designed to prevent backover accidents.
Although some automakers have already started including backup cameras on their vehicles, many new vehicles are not equipped with backup cameras. As a result, approximately 100 children under the age of 5 die each year in this country due to backup accidents. This fact led Congress to pass the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, which gave the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration three years to implement safety regulations designed to prevent backover accidents. Now, Cameron's father is taking a keen interest in the implementation of the safety regulations.
In fact, those regulations are now long overdue, and little has been done to prevent backover car accidents since that time. So little has happened, in fact, serious questions are now being asked by the press and safety advocates alike.
Taking these questions about the delay even further, a lawsuit against federal safety officials is scheduled to be filed this week by Greg Gulbransen, the New York doctor who accidentally killed his son, Cameron, in a backover accident in 2002. According to news reports, the NHTSA has declined to comment about the litigation, but it has announced that it will start recommending backup cameras as safety equipment on new vehicles.
Whether or not car manufacturers will be required to start using backup cameras remains to be seen.
Source: Houston Chronicle, "Feds face grieving parents' suit over backover deaths," Susan Carroll, Sept. 25, 2013
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