Jacksonville, Florida News Article Highlights the Danger to Kids of Backing Vehicles
It is not uncommon for a person driving a car, SUV or truck to back out of a garage, driveway or other parking spot without looking, after only a cursory look in the vehicle's mirrors or without checking the vehicle's blind spots. However, particularly in residential areas, the risk of running over a child while backing up is significant. According to data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reported by www.News4Jax.com, 100 children were killed and 2,000 were injured in 2007 by vehicles that were backing up. Many of these accidents occurred in residential areas. Overall, 221 people were killed and 14,000 were injured in these backover accidents in 2007.
From a personal injury and wrongful death lawyer's perspective, if someone backs over a child in a residential area (or anywhere else for that matter), it is important to take a long, hard look into how careful that driver was before starting to back up his/her vehicle. If a child was run over in this manner, particularly in a residential area, it is important to find out, among other things, exactly what the driver did to determine whether the path behind him/her was clear and what the driver did to determine what children were in the area before starting the car and putting it in reverse. Even if a child quickly darts behind a car in reverse, it is a driver's responsibility to watch for children and others and take every reasonable step to avoid an accident. The fact that a child was in a driver's blind spot is not a valid defense to negligence after that driver hits or runs over that child in a lawsuit for injuries or a death.
