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Toddler Run Over In Driveway - A Too Common Occurance

By Eddie Farah

We’ve heard these stories before, too many times. This time a 2-year-old riding his tricycle in a driveway was run over in a driveway.

The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office says the little boy, Sergio Martinez, was riding his tricycle, not in the street, when Rangel Rauda driving a Ford Explorer ran him over. Rauda says she didn’t see the toddler because a parked car was in her way. Little Martinez later died in the hospital. Rauda may be charged.

In Northwest Washington, a 16-month-old boy is fatally hit by his father’s SUV. The mother was putting things in the trunk of her car. That’s how long the toddler had to wander away from her and into the SUV’s path.

In North Carolina last December, a 19-month-old girl was accidentally crushed to death by the family’s SUV. Singer Steven Curtis Chapman told People Magazine about the death in his family when a teenage son ran over his five-year-old adopted sister.

Almost weekly, the tragedy of a toddler killed by an SUV is reported. Most of the time it is a family tragedy that they never get over – that’s because it’s a family member behind the wheel.

Janette Fennell of the group Kids and Cars says “In the US fifty children are being backed over by vehicles EVERY week. 48 are treated in hospital emergency rooms and at least two children are fatally injured every WEEK.”

She told a Maine television audience, ”What makes this so tragic is that in 70 percent of these cases, it is a direct relative of that child who backs over and kills them.”

There is a blind zone behind SUVs that can extend more than 20 feet. This television report out of Maine proved that you cannot see anything behind the bumper to that distance.

Kids and Cars estimates nearly 500 children have been run over and killed in the last five years. That’s about half of the non-traffic fatalities among children. And Fennell believes the numbers may be even higher.

Kids and Cars advocates a rear-visibility standard so that drivers can see what’s behind them all the way up to the bumpers. Some cars are already equipped with back-up cameras to improve rear visibility. Do-it-yourself kits options are available for about $400.

Parking assist is an audible tone that lets a driver know if he is nearing an object or a child behind the car.

The best defense it to walk around the car. Never assume that you have a clear way. There is too much at stake. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on November 28, 2008 (boomark / email).