Last year, more than 100 children younger than 15 were killed in the United States when they were backed into by vehicles on private property, according to Kids and Cars, a Kansas-based child-safety organization that has built a database to track such deaths. The actual number could be two or three times higher, said Janette Fennell, the group’s president and founder. Legislation signed into law Wednesday by President Bush will require the federal government to begin counting these incidents on private property, and also will require research into preventing such accidents.
At least three children in Iowa have died this year when they were backed over. A grandmother in Ely hit her 6-year-old grandson; a mother in Hawarden hit her 2-year-old son; and a man in Muscatine hit a 2-year-old boy.
Fennell has noted an upward trend in the fatalities in recent years, which she attributes to the popularity of vehicles with larger rear blind spots, such as minivans, pickups and sport utility vehicles. More than 60 percent of the known incidents since 1998 involved these types of vehicles.
” And in over 70 percent of these cases, the mom or dad or another relative of the child was the driver,” Fennell said.
Accidents
The known number of children killed nationally and in Iowa each year in back-overs on private property:
2005: 62 nationwide as of July 22; three so far in Iowa.
2004: 101 nationwide; two in Iowa.
2003: 92 nationwide; one in Iowa:
2002: 71 nationwide; none known in Iowa.
2001: 52 nationwide; none known in Iowa.
Source: Kids and Cars
