Senators Sununu and Clinton Introduce Kids and Care Safety Legislation
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 -Sens. John Sununu (R-NH) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have joined in introducing legislation targeted at reducing the risk of motor vehicle accidents involving children.
The legislation would direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations requiring most light passenger vehicles to have back-over warning systems, power window strangulation prevention and brake-shift interlocks that makes it impossible to shift out of park unless the brake pedal is depressed.
“We want to provide clear direction to the Highway Traffic Safety Administration so that they can move forward and create standards in areas that are important to preventing traffic fatalities,” Sununu said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s always good to have some people from different sides of the aisle working together on a piece of legislation, and I think this is no exception. Hopefully we can bring together a number of co-sponsors from both parties and get the bill moving forward.”
In New Hampshire, State Representative Packy Campbell (R – Farmington) is especially interested in this legislation. His son, Ian, died last year when he was playing in a truck and was able to put it in gear without the ignition being turned on.
“The whole point for me is that I don’t want to see this happen to other kids,” Campbell said Wednesday. “It’s preventable and it is technology that exists and it is technology that is in 70 percent of the cars and it’s an expectation that consumers have.” He noted that if his son had climbed into a different car in his driveway, which was equipped with the brake-shift interlock, he would still be alive.
“Unfortunately, with the advent of these technologies, people are lulled into a false sense of security or they buy a product and expect that it works a certain way and you have this hidden defect,” Campbell said. “It’s going to take legislation to get rid of this hidden defect, and that is why it’s so important that we fast-track this bill and we get it passed.”
Kids In Cars, an organization dedicated to informing people about the dangers involved with children and motor vehicles as well as preventing future accidents, has been pushing for this legislation for many years, said Janette Fennell, its founder and president.
“With a bill like this it will really help to take this issue forward and make sure that everybody in Congress understands that our children are being killed unnecessarily and that they have the power of the pen to fix it,” Fennell said Wednesday.
Even as the legislation was introduced, another such death occurred Monday night when 2-year-old Natalie Williamson of Haleyville, Ala., was trick-or-treating with her mother and was killed when a car backed over her. According to Kids In Cars, there have been more than 2,000 accidents involving children left in or around motor vehicles since 2000.
“We’re working to try to get all of these things passed, but at the same time we want people to understand how they could protect their families in the meantime,” Fennell said. “We’re definitely about education until we can get this stuff taken care of.”
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