Eliminate Blind Zones to Save Lives
Invisible children, pets, and cars are everywhere. Just check your blind zones.
The blind zone behind a vehicle can range from twelve to fifty feet in popular larger cars. Every year, children are injured and killed because drivers cannot see them as they reverse.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed expanding the required field of vision so that drivers can see directly behind the vehicle when its transmission is in reverse. This recommendation has not been finalized because some believe it would be too expensive for car manufacturers to make this change. So the proposal to save lives gathers dust on a desk in DC while children continue to die.
Even the smallest blind zone is a tragedy waiting to happen. In 2013, we have the chance to make safety the new rule. Tell President Obama to support the NHTSA's proposal to eliminate deadly blind zones in ALL vehicles!
Dear President Obama,
Even for the most careful drivers, a vehicle's blind zone is an accident waiting to happen. Child injuries and fatalities, collisions, and pet deaths are
preventable tragedies all caused by a car's blind zone.
Many cars already have a small camera system to eliminate the rear view blind zone. If this safety equipment is available to car manufacturers, there should be no excuse for not having it in every car.
We should be treating life-saving car cameras the same way we treat seatbelts and airbags: as an obligation to consumer safety.
When cars back up, a blind zone of 12 to 50 feet is more than enough for a child or a pet to dart right in front of harm's way. Make blind zone-free vehicles the ONLY vehicles on the road.
[Your comments here]
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
