Photo courtesy sidesofmarch.com
Two children in the U.S. are killed each week by a car that is backing up and 70 percent of these accidents are caused by a parent or family member.
"More times than not-it's not neglect or anything like that," said Amarillo Police Department Corporal Jerry Neufeld. "It's just, little ones are hard to keep track of if you get distracted. A little child doesn't realize the dangers and threats to them and they walk out into the driveway or into the roadway and unfortunately do get struck."
Amarillo is on the low end of the scale, according to figures from kidsandcars.org
"Even though we've only seen two fatalities along this line in the last five or six years, there's definitely going to be more that do occur that weren't fatalities," Neuefeld said.
This weekend for instance, a two-year-old boy was hit in the Hollywood Theater parking lot in Amarillo.
He was sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, he is among the 50 children who are backed into each week in the U.S. and are treated in the emergency room.
Federal regulators are working to pass new safety laws that will require a rear-view camera system in every vehicle by 2014.
"I'm sure it will cut down on injuries and death. That's something no parent should have to go through," said Jeff Irizarry of McGavock Nissan.
The new requirements have been deferred three times and will not be finalized until the end of the year.
Car dealerships like Nissan have been proactive in getting cameras in most of their cars.
"I'd be surprised if in the next couple of years if it's not in all our cars," said Irizarry.
Nationwide, close to 100 lives will be saved every year with the rear-view cameras according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Irizarry said the cameras are a feature that many people are interested in.
