HUNTINGTON - The Nelsons lost 16-month-old Alec three years ago when his grandfather drove his SUV over the toddler while backing out of a driveway.
Cameron Gulbransen was 2 when his pediatrician dad backed his SUV over him on a Saturday night in October 2001.
Alec and Cameron are just two victims in what parents and child safety advocates call a growing trend of children being killed and maimed by vehicles - often their family's own SUVs and minivans - backing out of driveways and parking spaces.
“This can happen in a second and you never think it will happen to you,” said Alec's dad, Bill Nelson of Dix Hills. “It can and it does. Think about that every time you back up.”
The tragic trend is known as the “bye-bye syndrome,” said Janette Fennell, founder of the Kansas-based Kids And Cars.org safety advocacy group.
Children “don't want to be left behind” when a beloved relative is leaving; they sneak out and put themselves in a dangerous position behind the vehicles where they can't be seen.
“They don't understand,” she said. “They just want to give grandma another kiss goodbye.”
“Our little 20-month-old Tiffany walked outside, anxious, I am sure, to help her daddy move the car ... to give him one more kiss,” an Arizona mom writes on Fennell's Web site. “I have nightmares of hearing him scream into the house, 'CALL 911-CALL 911!”'
At a recent press conference to raise awareness, Alec's mom, Adriann Raschdorf-Nelson, said she hopes people will realize the accidents are not necessarily due to negligence.
“It's the fact that you can't see behind you when you back up,” she said, her eyes misting as she thought about her son, who died April 24, 2004. “We never thought this would happen to us because we were careful. We knew where our children were at all times.”
“You can't always count on that.”
The couple worked with the Suffolk County Legislature to implement “Alec's Law,” which requires auto dealers to distribute safety tips to buyers; it is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, advocates say.
Because the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration does not track accidents that occur on private property - like driveways - statistics about “backover” accidents are difficult to track. The NHTSA estimates there are at least 183 fatalities annually; children 15 and younger accounted for 145 of those fatalities, spokeswoman Karen Aldana said. The second-largest group were people older than 70.
Fennell's group tracks statistics by reviewing traffic accident reports, news stories and other media searches. She noted that in April, the number of fatalities spiked to 14 children nationwide.
“We can't sit still for this,” she said. “What would this country do if 14 children came down with bird flu this month, or what if they were dying from bad burgers? I don't know why the American people aren't horrified that 14 children have been killed this way this month alone.”
Fennell contends that more than half of the backover accidents involve big vehicles like SUVs and minivans. “People want to use the term `blind spot.' We are defining it as a blind zone.”
She noted one SUV has a blind zone that is seven feet wide, by 69 feet long. “You can't call that a spot,” she said.
Federal legislation named for Cameron Gulbransen has been pending in Congress for several years, but his father, Dr. Greg Gulbransen of Syosset, said he is optimistic about its passage this session.
Sponsored by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Peter King, R-Long Island, it calls for the Department of Transportation to establish visibility performance standards and to create a database that would track backover accidents.
Wade Newton, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington, D.C., which represents seven top automakers, said his organization has not taken a position on the Gulbransen legislation, but supports the creation of a database to track backover accidents.
“The bottom line is safety is our highest priority,” he said, adding backup cameras and other safety technologies “show promise, but more research and development is needed.”
Newton added: “Parental supervision is essential to any technology that we introduce.”
Gulbransen, a pediatrician who has treated other children injured in backovers, said he could not have been more careful.
“I never saw him,” he said of the cherubic-faced Cameron. “I was looking very carefully, driving very slowly in what I thought was a safe car.”
He said Cameron, “for the first time ever, opened the front door, got out of the house, went down the driveway to find me.
“I backed right over him.”
“Cameron came into the world as a tough little guy who loved life,” says his family's Web memorial. “He loved being tossed into the air, hugged, wrestled with and most of all he loved to play with his older brother, Scott.”
“...Let us all learn from little Cameron and make the world a safer place.”
On the Net: www.kidsandcars.org
Alec and Cameron are just two victims in what parents and child safety advocates call a growing trend of children being killed and maimed by vehicles - often their family's own SUVs and minivans - backing out of driveways and parking spaces.
“This can happen in a second and you never think it will happen to you,” said Alec's dad, Bill Nelson of Dix Hills. “It can and it does. Think about that every time you back up.”
The tragic trend is known as the “bye-bye syndrome,” said Janette Fennell, founder of the Kansas-based Kids And Cars.org safety advocacy group.
Children “don't want to be left behind” when a beloved relative is leaving; they sneak out and put themselves in a dangerous position behind the vehicles where they can't be seen.
“They don't understand,” she said. “They just want to give grandma another kiss goodbye.”
“Our little 20-month-old Tiffany walked outside, anxious, I am sure, to help her daddy move the car ... to give him one more kiss,” an Arizona mom writes on Fennell's Web site. “I have nightmares of hearing him scream into the house, 'CALL 911-CALL 911!”'
At a recent press conference to raise awareness, Alec's mom, Adriann Raschdorf-Nelson, said she hopes people will realize the accidents are not necessarily due to negligence.
“It's the fact that you can't see behind you when you back up,” she said, her eyes misting as she thought about her son, who died April 24, 2004. “We never thought this would happen to us because we were careful. We knew where our children were at all times.”
“You can't always count on that.”
The couple worked with the Suffolk County Legislature to implement “Alec's Law,” which requires auto dealers to distribute safety tips to buyers; it is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, advocates say.
Because the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration does not track accidents that occur on private property - like driveways - statistics about “backover” accidents are difficult to track. The NHTSA estimates there are at least 183 fatalities annually; children 15 and younger accounted for 145 of those fatalities, spokeswoman Karen Aldana said. The second-largest group were people older than 70.
Fennell's group tracks statistics by reviewing traffic accident reports, news stories and other media searches. She noted that in April, the number of fatalities spiked to 14 children nationwide.
“We can't sit still for this,” she said. “What would this country do if 14 children came down with bird flu this month, or what if they were dying from bad burgers? I don't know why the American people aren't horrified that 14 children have been killed this way this month alone.”
Fennell contends that more than half of the backover accidents involve big vehicles like SUVs and minivans. “People want to use the term `blind spot.' We are defining it as a blind zone.”
She noted one SUV has a blind zone that is seven feet wide, by 69 feet long. “You can't call that a spot,” she said.
Federal legislation named for Cameron Gulbransen has been pending in Congress for several years, but his father, Dr. Greg Gulbransen of Syosset, said he is optimistic about its passage this session.
Sponsored by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Peter King, R-Long Island, it calls for the Department of Transportation to establish visibility performance standards and to create a database that would track backover accidents.
Wade Newton, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington, D.C., which represents seven top automakers, said his organization has not taken a position on the Gulbransen legislation, but supports the creation of a database to track backover accidents.
“The bottom line is safety is our highest priority,” he said, adding backup cameras and other safety technologies “show promise, but more research and development is needed.”
Newton added: “Parental supervision is essential to any technology that we introduce.”
Gulbransen, a pediatrician who has treated other children injured in backovers, said he could not have been more careful.
“I never saw him,” he said of the cherubic-faced Cameron. “I was looking very carefully, driving very slowly in what I thought was a safe car.”
He said Cameron, “for the first time ever, opened the front door, got out of the house, went down the driveway to find me.
“I backed right over him.”
“Cameron came into the world as a tough little guy who loved life,” says his family's Web memorial. “He loved being tossed into the air, hugged, wrestled with and most of all he loved to play with his older brother, Scott.”
“...Let us all learn from little Cameron and make the world a safer place.”
On the Net: www.kidsandcars.org
The Citizens' Say
There are 7 comment(s)
SAFETYandAWARENESSisthepoint wrote on May 1, 2007 1:00 PM:
dave wrote on Apr 30, 2007 8:32 PM:
CK wrote on Apr 30, 2007 8:12 PM:
we need wrote on Apr 30, 2007 6:08 PM:
Isn't it sad.. wrote on Apr 30, 2007 3:34 PM:
Stop Judging People! wrote on Apr 30, 2007 2:37 PM:
I hate SUVs and Minivans wrote on Apr 30, 2007 1:03 PM: