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Washington, D.C.—The National Consumers League applauded
President Bush for signing the Cameron Gulbransen Kids
Transportation Safety Act into law late last week.
“The
Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act will help
prevent countless heart-wrenching injuries and deaths to
children in and around vehicles” said Sally Greenberg, NCL
Executive Director. “At long last, this safety measure addresses
the most serious causes of needless fatalities to youngsters in
backovers, runaway cars and power window accidents."
Young
children are backed over and killed at a rate of twice each week
in the United States. The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation
Safety Act, will require all cars to meet a “rearward visibility
standard,” and allow drivers to detect objects behind them, also
requires that every vehicle be equipped with brake shift
interlock. This requires that the brake pedal be depressed in
order to shift the car into gear, which would prevent small
children from being able to set a car in motion, as they
typically can’t reach the brake pedal. Finally, the bill calls
for data collection by the federal government for these types of
nontraffic, noncrash incidents, which are not systematically
tracked now by the government.
“Our
hearts go out to all of the families who know the grief and
hardship of having lost a child, and we commend their tireless
efforts in advocating for the passage of this bill,” Greenberg
said.
Consumer groups and safety advocates have worked with members of
Congress for years to institute these protections. Before
joining NCL last October, Greenberg spent a decade at Consumers
Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, lobbying to get the
bill passed. The magazine measures all blind areas behind every
vehicle it tests, with some blind zones measuring as long as 69
feet – longer than many driveways. A driver, about to put a
1,000-plus pound car into reverse, unable to see anything behind
her for 69 feet and as many as 7 feet wide: clearly an accident
waiting to happen.
“The
greatest danger to children comes with the largest of vehicles:
SUVs and pickup trucks, which often have much wider and longer
blind zones,” Greenberg said.
The
legislation is named after Cameron Gulbransen, who was killed at
the age of two when his father Dr. Greg Gulbransen, backed over
his son because of a blind zone in the rear of his vehicle.
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For
more information about HR 1216 and S. 694, “The Cameron
Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act of 2007,” contact NCL’s
communications department:
media@nclnet.org or (202) 835-3323, ext 114. |
