Cameron

Cameron’s story is one that every parent must try to learn from. Learn from the preventable tragedy that took place and remember that what happened to Cameron can happen to any child. Learn from Cameron, and his devastated family.

Cameron came into the world as a tough little guy who loved life. From the very beginning Cameron loved action. He loved being tossed into the air, hugged, wrestled with and most of all he loved to play with his older brother, Scott. Although he was much smaller in size and younger in age, Cameron simply loved to play with Scott. They were great together. Scott never hurt Cameron; and always looked out for his best interest. Scott and Cameron were the best of brothers. One of my favorite lines that Scott ever said took place while driving home from the hospital with baby Cameron. We were in our big safe SUV with the children buckled up in the back-seat in their car seats and Scott shouts out, “Now we’re a family.” And there we were the safe American family looking all fashionable in our sporty SUV that we purchased partially because of its’ safety record. Just what any caring parent would do for their precious cargo.

Needless to say, my wife Leslie and I soon learned the hardest lesson we will ever learn and one that will hopefully impact others. Our SUV was anything but the safe vehicle we thought we had purchased. Had we only known about the reality of the large and dangerous blind spot we would have done things very differently.

On October 19, 2002 at 9:30pm Leslie and I had returned from dinner with friends. Cameron and Scott were put to bed earlier but upon returning Cameron heard our voices and called out for us. While Leslie went to pay the babysitter, I could not resist the temptation to go and get the little guy. When I peeked into this room there he was sitting up with a great big smile. I quickly took him out of his crib and brought him downstairs to be with Leslie and myself. After a short while I announced I needed to move the SUV into the driveway for the evening. Cameron stayed inside as he always had done in the past. While driving into the driveway I choose to back into the driveway because each morning the street is filled with children and people walking dogs, etc. As always, I used both side view mirrors and the rear view mirror, as well as looked over my shoulder in an attempt to avoid hitting anything.

Suddenly I noted a small bump with the front wheel and wasn’t sure what it could have been. I knew I was too far from the curb to have hit that; and that there was no newspaper in the driveway. Quickly I jumped from the vehicle and saw the most devastating scene of my life. My little Cameron was lying down with his blanket in his hand while bleeding profusely from his head.

As a physician I knew it was the end. I did everything I could do and so did the paramedics. Cameron had died a sudden and horrible death because he was too small for me to see him behind my vehicle.

This story has happened to too many families and will continue to happen at an alarming rate if we as drivers are not informed about the real danger of driving vehicles with large blind spots.

Our federal government, whose job it is to make sure we have safe vehicles to drive, needs to recognize this all too real problem and begin to inform the public about these dangers, and the automobile manufacturers need to install technology that has proven to be effective and would help warn drivers that something is behind their vehicle before backing up.

Making these changes would help to protect us all; especially innocent children.

Let us all learn from little Cameron, and make the world a safer place.

Dillon Richard Caputo

September 23, 2005 – May 8, 2007

My precious angel

Dillon was our surprise baby. We had wanted a big family but thought we were only going to be blessed with 2 when we found out we were expecting a third right after my husband left for Iraq. I was training for the Boston Marathon at thetime and after consulting with my doctors, got the go ahead to run it while I was 17 weeks pregnant. I finished and was very proud of my time. From that moment, Dillon became extra special to me and I couldn’t wait until I could give him our Boston Marathon Medal one day. In the last months of the pregnancy, my husband begged me to buy a H3 Hummer. Being ex-military myself, I hated the idea of owning one, but I eventually gave in since he works hard for his money.

Dillon was born on September 23, 2005. I was deter-mined I wasn’t going to have an epidural this time and after much work, he was my first baby I had naturally. Now he was even more special to me because I had had to work so hard to have him. His brother and sister loved on him and I couldn’t believe what a perfect family we had. Dillon was such a happy baby. He was always grinning and making me laugh. He loved bouncing to music and chasing the dogs. He loved torturing his older sister and playing with his big brother. My husband went back to Iraq again and returned shortly after Dillon’s 1st birthday. He could retire in 9 months and said he decided that’s what he wanted to do, as he couldn’t bear to leave us again. We were in San Diego and decided we liked it there so we started looking for a Hummer. Being ex-military myself, I hated the idea of owning one, but I eventually gave in since he works hard for his money.
retirement home. We searched and searched for something we could afford and finally found our dream house. It was on 5 acres in the country and the property was completely fenced with an electronic gate to get in and out. Perfect. Our children would be so safe and they would have plenty of room to kick a soccer ball or hit a baseball. The house had a pool that wasn’t fenced, so we immediately paid for one to be put in, as Dillon loved the water and we didn’t want to take any chances. The electronic gate didn’t have a sensor on it so my husband took the time to replace it with a safe system so the children would never get hurt in it. Rattlesnakes were common in the area so we asked our Pediatrician what to do should something happen and then always checked around everything before the kids went out to play. We did everything we could think of to keep our kids safe.
With all the constant moves and deployments of military life, comes a lot of stress and we had our fair share of it. We were actually in counseling at the time to try to work through some things and the counselor told me I needed to loosen up some as I tend to be a   perfectionist. Since our move to the new house, I hadn’t gotten into a good running routine again and knew if I did, I would start to be less stressed. So on Monday morning, May 7th, I got up and went running early before my husband left for work. I felt great afterwards and knew I was on the right track. That evening when my husband got home from work the kids begged him to go into the hot tub. He had taken his motorcycle to work that day and didn’t even move it into the garage. Instead he went to heat the hot tub. I helped get the kids dressed and then I was going to go start dinner. Instead I decided to join them as they were having so much fun. I was really trying to loosen up and just enjoy life. I told myself it was ok if they got to bed late one night. I’m so thankful I did get into the hot tub that night. Dillon had so much fun blowing bubbles and splashing. We had a late dinner and then I read to Dillon that night while my husband read to the older 2 kids. Dillon had me read the same book to him like 5 times. It was such a good night. The next morning, May 8th, my alarm clock went off for me to go running. Well, I was sore and tired and contemplated going back to sleep. How I wish I had. Instead I told myself to not be lazy and got up. While I was on my run, I realized we had forgotten to take the trash out the night before and my husband had forgotten to put his motorcycle away (something he has never done before). The trash pickup comes early but I looked at my watch and thought I could do it in the 30 minutes I had left before the kids got up. However, what I didn’t know was that while I was gone, our dogs who had woken up when I left, woke up the kids. Dillon came running up to me when I walked in the house and I picked him up and said, “What are you doing up?”. I started to carry Dillon off to get his milk when I remembered the trash and told my husband. He was stressed because he was already running late for work, so I told him I would help him with it. So instead of getting Dillon’s milk, I got his coat and shoes on him. By this time my husband was running out the door and I told Dillon we would get his milk after we helped daddy. There were 3 bins that needed to go out. I thought my husband would put the smaller 2 in the Hummer and I would roll the bigger one down the hill and carry Dillon. My husband asked me to put a smaller one inside the bigger one, but to do this, I had to put Dillon down. The garage doors were open and Dillon’s kitchen and toys were in there. Usually he asks for me to pick him back up but he wandered away to go play with his toys. I headed down the slight hill to wait for my husband’s car to trigger the gate to open. I wish I had looked back up the hill and maybe I could have seen what was about to happen. My husband says he looked several times in his mirrors because the dogs were out and he wanted to make sure everything was out of the way. He forgot Dillon was outside, as he is normally asleep when my husband leaves for work. The next thing I heard was a terrible scream. I thought my husband had hit one of the dogs; it never dawned on me it was my baby. I can remember looking up the hill at my husband and thinking what is wrong with him, I see all the dogs. He finally managed to point to where the Hummer had been and scream our son’s name.
to me and think of how much I have lost. I know he’s in a better place but that doesn’t ease the pain I feel when I see another mother with her toddler. It doesn’t take away the hole I feel inside. I lost a huge part of myself that day. I now try to get the word out to everyone about the dangers of vehicles. I wish someone had warned me about them. If only I had seen one of the shows on backover fatalities. If only…
I had hated that Hummer from the day my husband bought it. I would drive it on
My baby was lying there with his favorite shoes (camouflage crocs) on and his favorite blankie. My husband got to him before I did, told me he was breathing and to call 911. He then took him inside. I frantically ran around calling 911, getting the dogs put up and the gate kept open. The cops raced past my house the first time and when I went running to the end of my driveway, I lost reception with 911. I had to call them back. It seemed like an eternity before anyone got there. I kept screaming that I needed a paramedic. They finally got there and then I was no longer allowed in to see my baby boy. They ended up flying him to the hospital and I only got to see him leaving my house on a stretcher. We weren’t allowed in the helicopter with him. My husband was a wreck but I kept making phone calls to family because I knew we were going to need help with the other children. Our good friends arrived to drive us to the hospital but it was rush hour and it took us over an hour to get there. I kept praying but I felt like he was going to be ok, that we were just going to be in for a long hospital stay. How could my baby who was so strong and had run the marathon with me be dying. I said there was no way. I was wrong. They were going to take Dillon in for a CAT scan but then his heart gave out and they couldn’t revive him. The next time I saw my baby, he was dead. He was only 19 months old. I never got to say goodbye and tell him I loved him because I was too busy trying to get emergency personnel there to help him. I’ll never forgive myself for that and I’ll definitely never forgive myself for not picking him back up that morning. My husband will forever live with the guilt that he killed our baby. How, when I was trying so hard to improve my married life, could something this terrible happen? My husband’s birthday is May 9th. He’ll never enjoy a birthday again. Mother’s Day was 5 days after I lost my baby, 1 day after the memorial service. It’ll never be the same. It’s a parent’s worse nightmare to have to bury their child. I buried my marathon medal with him but I kept his blankie. I still hug it occasion when I went somewhere without the children as I would want my husband to have mine with the carseats. It had terrible visibility, even for seeing other vehicles. My car has a backup camera on it. My husband had bought one for the Hummer, but when he installed it, there was a blind spot, so he took it back. He wonders to this day, had he kept it, maybe Dillon wouldn’t have been in the blind spot and he would have seen him. Now whenever I see a Hummer I get very angry. I now know all vehicles are dangerous, but for some reason, the Hummers make me more angry because their visiblility is terrible in general. I’ll never get over the hatred I feel for these vehicles until they make them safer. My husband bought a new vehicle and my one guideline was that it had to have a backup camera in it and it was not to be parked in my driveway until it did. The sad thing is that he had to request the
camera; it was never offered to him. Then we had to wait for it to be installed. It shouldn’t even be an option. They should be as standard as a radio is. Or what about the DVD systems they’re always trying to sell us for our kids. They want our kids to be entertained, but not safe? I truly hope we can get this legislation passed. I don’t want another parent to have to go through what we have gone through. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think, If only…

Karena Caputo

Annabelle Bryant

May 5, 2005 started as a normal day. I woke hearing laughter downstairs from my two children and the sounds of little feet running on the hardwood floor. After showering, shaving and getting dressed I made my way down the steps. “Hi, Daddy!” my daughter Annabelle yelled from her booster seat. Both she and Drew (our youngest) were eating their breakfast while watching the Wiggles from the kitchen. I made my way over to the kids and began to give Drew a few good-bye kisses. Then Annabelle pointed to her forehead and asked for her kiss too. Of course, I obliged. I told everyone good-bye and that I loved them, then headed out.

Around 1:45pm I received a call on my cell phone from a female that was clearly upset. Not recognizing the number on the caller ID, I thought that it was one of my employees calling from their cell phone. I heard “accident” and she sounded panicked. I asked her to calm down and asked what happened. Then I recognized my wife’s voice…..”Rodney, are you there?” I responded yes…., “Annabelle was crushed by a car!” she said. I asked if she was going to be ok…the answer was “I don’t know.” She then told me a few details which haunt me to this day.

We had a paint contractor come over to the house that day to give us a quote. He had parked in our driveway, between us and our neighbors house. After he was done, he went next door to our neighbor’s house to give them a quote as well. My wife and the kids came outside and began to play. Annabelle was playing with her stroller and baby doll in the driveway behind the truck while my wife stood no less than 10 feet away with my son. Not seeing my daughter behind his pickup, the contractor got in and immediately backed up. My wife screamed for him to stop as she ran towards the truck but he did not hear her. She was only a arm’s length away when Annabelle was killed.

Our lives have been forever changed. Nothing could have prepared us for such a loss. Our first born child was killed. How could this happen? How could it have been prevented? We still search for answers every day.

One thing that could have saved her is if the contractor had a rear detection device in his truck. We must continue to push our government and automobile manufacturers to make these devices mandatory!

Please visit our website: www.annabellesangels.net

God Bless you.

Rodney Bryant

Kaycie Lynn Blood

It was the last day of Spring in 2003. It was also to be the last day that we would see our little girl Kaycie alive.

Kaycie was only eight years old. In May, she had proudly graduated from second grade at Mesquite Elementary School in Apple Valley, CA. and was looking forward to becoming a third grader. Kaycie loved to write and, her dream was to become a school teacher.

Our little Ladybug had a real sparkle about her. She loved to dance, sing and play with butterflies. And, Kaycie adored her brother Shane, and he adored her right back even though she was his “little” sister. She charmed everyone who met her.

On June 20, 2003, at approximately 11:42 AM, Kaycie was riding her purple, 20-inch bicycle in the Tu-Su Circle cul-de-sac where we live in Apple Valley. At the same time, a San Bernardino County trash truck was collecting trash on Tonkin Avenue. Kaycie had followed the truck and waved to the driver as he performed his duties. He waved back and then proceeded to turn into the Tu-Su Circle cul-de-sac. Kaycie followed some distance behind, continuing to watch the garbage being collected. At the south end of the cul-de-sac, the garbage truck reversed to execute a three-point turn to exit the cul-de-sac. The audible back-up warning device, as required under the California Vehicle Code, did not operate.

Kaycie never stood a chance. She was struck by the garbage truck, throwing her violently to the ground and causing massive blunt force trauma to her head, killing her.

We know that Kaycie is safe in God’s arms. But that does not stop our hearts from aching or from missing her so much. Kaycie has left us far too early, and so it is very important to our family to make sure that her death does not simply become another faceless statistic.

We don’t want to see another child backed-over and killed, and that’s why the Blood Family will be working to help get laws enacted that will require garbage trucks, delivery vehicles, vans, pickup trucks and SUVs to have appropriate warning sensors and visual devices that will compensate for their larger blind spots.

Until our lawmakers take action, we hope that anyone who owns a larger sized vehicle will do the responsible thing by installing a rear vision system. We commend people like David Mendoza and his company, HitchCAM Corporation for coming up with solutions to the blind spot problem, and we’ve even put a HitchCAM on our family’s Toyota 4 Runner. Some people may think that such devices are an accessory, but we strongly believe that they are really a necessity that can help prevent accidents and save lives.

On June 2, 2004 we planted a beautiful Flowering Plum tree at Kaycie’s school. She would have turned nine on May 30th and we wanted to do something special to celebrate her memory in a way that would be meaningful to us and to the community. We hope that the event will motivate our lawmakers and the makers of our vehicles to listen to what we have to say and do the right thing by enacting laws that will protect those who are near and dear to us.