Backover deaths create family nightmares

[MC69TA]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_on_re_us/precious_little_ones;_ylt=Alh.PmbQzPA98a1X7qFXNAOs 0NUE

"Each week, at least two children are killed and another 50 are hurt in backover accidents. Over three days in April, six children were killed; by the end of the month, 11 more died, the group said."

"A study by Consumer Reports magazine suggests SUVs, pickups and minivans are longer and taller and their blind zones extend as much as 50 feet from the rear bumper. These factors contribute to poor visibility, the report says. "

Please be watchful

[mac]

You know, that is really easy to do. When I was 18, I was trying to leave the parking lot of a gas station in Vicksburg when I backed into a kid on a bike. I swear I was looking behind the car when it happened and still have no idea how I didn't see him. The bumper hit the front wheel of the bike and knocked him over, but luckily the car was barely moving and he was okay. The bike was even okay, but it was a wake up call for me.

I've never been more certain that I was about to be sued than I was that day, but it all worked out.

[jmb]

Why doesn't the auto industry push these safety options more? It's so much cheaper to be manufactured with them than to add on later, after something has happened.

[jmb]

You know, that is really easy to do. When I was 18, I was trying to leave the parking lot of a gas station in Vicksburg when I backed into a kid on a bike. I swear I was looking behind the car when it happened and still have no idea how I didn't see him. The bumper hit the front wheel of the bike and knocked him over, but luckily the car was barely moving and he was okay. The bike was even okay, but it was a wake up call for me.

I've never been more certain that I was about to be sued than I was that day, but it all worked out.

Mac, my hubby had a similar experience. He was pulling out from a McDonald's and a retarded young man rode right in front of him. No matter who's at fault, that initial feel of hitting someone is tremendous.

[No-Halo]

Mac, my hubby had a similar experience. He was pulling out from a McDonald's and a retarded young man rode right in front of him. No matter who's at fault, that initial feel of hitting someone is tremendous.
Well you tell Mr JMB he owes me a new bike!! :smt118

[jmb]

Well you tell Mr JMB he owes me a new bike!! :smt118
:laugh::laugh::laugh:

[dollfus46]

The light turns green and I'm the third car back. I approach the corner and make a right turn, just as a guy on a bicycle comes from a convenience store lot into the street I'm turning onto. If he continues I'll hit him. He applies his hand brakes so hard that the rear of his bike comes up over his head and throws him over the handlebars into the street, and under the wheels of my car. Had I not seen him out of the corner of my eye, fixing to enter the street, he's dead. Nothing I could have done about it. When I stopped, he was literally beneath my front bumper. Oddly, several blocks down the road, I began to shake uncontrollably as what had just taken place began to sink in. I had to pull over and get my "stuff" back together.

[58ford]

When I was six my next door neighbor ran over me with his delivery van.
The van was high enough that I just got scrapes & bruises, the wheels missed me. A few days later her ran over his daughter, she was also not badly injured.
What kind of devices could be put on a car to prevent these accidents?

[dollfus46]

When I was six my next door neighbor ran over me with his delivery van.
The van was high enough that I just got scrapes & bruises, the wheels missed me. A few days later her ran over his daughter, she was also not badly injured.
What kind of devices could be put on a car to prevent these accidents?

What I'm about to say will go in one ear and out the next of most people. Would me too, if someone else said it to me.......but we need to recognize the weapon we're pointing down the road, and put our thoughts on hold for awhile, while we focus on driving. THINK about what we're doing. Can't tell you the number of times I've gotten into a car, driven from point A to point B and not remembered how I got there nor remembered which lights were red and which were green. Scary. And everyone of us has done it. We just got lucky, without "getting lucky".:-D

[58ford]

The reason most accidents happen is because we don't want NOT to have an accident badly enough.