Kids and Cars Bill en Route to President Bush! – National Consumers League

By National Consumers League staff

Great news! We just got word that the Kids and Cars bill has passed the Senate and is on its way to the Oval Office! We blogged about this bill a while back – it’s a bill that would protect young children from being backed over and hurt or killed by cars driving in reverse by making the cars themselves safer.

NCL’s Executive Director Sally Greenberg worked on this issue when she was a senior attorney at Consumers Union, and we’re thrilled that the lobbying has paid off! Today, the Senate unanimously passed the bill, which was sponsored by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Congressman Peter King (R-NY), (the bill bears the name of his young constituent, Cameron Gulbransen, a victim of backover) and cosponsored by more than 40 other senators from both sides of the aisle.

Once President Bush signs the bill into law, eventually every new light vehicle will be required to meet a standard for rear visibility, allowing drivers to detect objects behind them. Additionally, vehicles will be required to be set up so that the brake must be depressed to shift into gear, preventing young children from playing with a gear shift and setting a car in motion. Finally, the new law will call for data collection by the federal government for these types of nontraffic, noncrash incidents, which are not systematically tracked now by the government.

Stay tuned for more as we continue to track this important bill’s progress!