The devastating news of a heightens awareness to blind spots and the question of whether cars and trucks should be required to be equipped with reverse sensors.
Each week in the U.S. about 50 children are backed over, and in 70 percent of those cases the driver is a parent or relative of the child, according to KidsAndCars.org, a nonprofit advocacy group. Two of the 50 die as a result of the backover, the rest end up treated in hospitals. The predominant age of the victim is less than two years old.
The blind spot in each vehicle varies from model to model and is partially dependent on the size of the driver.
Consumer Reports conducted blind spot studies of a wide range of cars, minivans, trucks and SUVs. In their report the kind of vehicle involved in the Vista Court backover on Tuesday, a Ford Focus, had a blind spot length of between 12 feet to 30 feet, depending on the model and size of driver.
It is unknown at this time which Ford Focus model was being driven by the male driver nor is his height available to Patch.
For comparison, Consumer Reports used a 28-inch cone placed behind a vehicle to measure the distance to a blind spot. Following is the findings for a Ford Focus:
Ford Focus Model & Year Blind Spot Distance in Feet for a 5'-8" Tall Person Blind Spot Distance in Feet for a 5'-1" Tall Person 2008 SES 17 27 2005 ZX4 SES 12 24 2005 ZX4 ST 14 30KidsAndCars.org offers a list of recommendations to help keep kids safe, which is attached to this article.
