Every other day a young child is killed in a non-traffic automobile incident. The age of victims in these cases is usually less than 4-years-old. These tragedies are truly heart-wrenching - but also preventable. This bill addresses the leading causes of these needless deaths and injuries by directing the Secretary of Transportation to issue safety standards and take other action to reduce the incidence of child injury and death inside or outside of parked passenger motor vehicles.

The Need to Protect Children In and Around Vehicles

• Since 1999, at least 1,000 children have died in non-traffic incidents and this statistic has been steadily rising. In 2005 alone, there have been at least 222 fatalities. There have been at least 125 fatalities in 2006. The government currently does not even collect data about nontraffic incidents, so we know that the real fatality numbers are much higher. (data provided by KIDS AND CARS, www.KidsAndCar.org
• A 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study (July 2000-June 2001) reports that over 9,160 children are treated in hospital emergency rooms due to nontraffic incidents.

The Bill

The Cameron Gulbransen KIDS AND CARS Safety Act, S. 1948 directs the Secretary of Transportation to issue safety standards to decrease the incidence of child injury and death. The Act:

• Establishes reasonable rulemaking deadlines regarding child safety, applicable to all passenger motor vehicles, in three ways:

• Ensures that power windows and panels automatically reverse direction when they detect an obstruction to prevent children from being trapped, injured or killed.                
• Requires a rearward visibility performance standard that will provide drivers with a means of detecting the presence of a person behind the vehicle in order to prevent backing incidents involving death and injury, especially to small children and disabled people.                  
• Requires the vehicle service brake to be engaged in all key positions and while the key is out of the ignition, in order to prevent incidents resulting from children disengaging the gear shift and causing vehicles to roll away.

• Establishes a child safety information program, administered by the Secretary of Transportation. This will involve collecting non-traffic incident data, informing parents about these hazards to children and ways to mitigate them, as well as making this information available to the public through the Internet and other means.

Support

• Senators John E. Sununu (R-NH) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) introduced S. 1948 on October 31, 2005.
• Groups supporting the bill include: KIDS AND CARS; Consumers Union, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Public Citizen, Kids in Danger, Trauma Foundation, The Zoie Foundation, Adrianna’s Rule Foundation, Veronica’s Eyes Foundation, Craig’s Crusade and more.