AMERICAN MORNING

Kids, Car Safety

Aired August 6, 2003 - 07:44   ET

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: As a pediatrician, Dr. Greg Gulbransen knows more about child safety than most people, but his tragic story points to a hidden danger in millions of driveways. Backing up at the slowest of speeds, drivers are often blind to children behind them. It happened to Dr. Gulbransen, and he wants his experience to prevent similar tragedies.
He joins us right here in our studio this morning.

Thank you once again for being with us.

DR. GREG GULBRANSEN, PEDIATRICIAN: Thank you.

COLLINS: And also with us from Kansas City, Janette Fennell, founder of the child advocacy group, Kids and Cars.

Good morning to you, and thanks for being here also.

JANETTE FENNELL, FOUNDER, KIDS AND CARS: Thanks for having me.

COLLINS: Dr. Gulbransen, I want to begin with you. Tell us what happened with your son, Cameron, last October.

GULBRANSEN: You know, it was a Saturday evening, and he was in the house with my wife and the babysitter. It was around 9:30. I had gone outside to move the car into the driveway. In doing so, I backed the car into the driveway. The door to the house, I might add, was closed. Cameron was inside the house.

Anyway, while I was backing up the car into the driveway, I felt a bump. I was looking to where I was going, didn't understand what it was I could have hit. And sure enough, I jumped out of the car and there he was. Complete surprise. I had looked to where I was going. He was in the house, the door was closed. How could he have possibly gotten out of that house? How could I have missed him? I looked in the rearview mirrors, I looked out the back window, I never saw him. I never had a chance of seeing him. He was 2 years old; he was too small.

COLLINS: He was little.

GULBRANSEN: And small.

COLLINS: And when you look in your rearview mirror before you back out, like most of us are doing and hopefully doing every time...

GULBRANSEN: Right.

COLLINS: ... you saw nothing.

GULBRANSEN: Absolutely nothing. And I looked, and I saw nothing.

COLLINS: So, obviously that brings up the question about blind spots, and this is why you're here today.

GULBRANSEN: That's right.

COLLINS: Talk to us a little bit about it.

GULBRANSEN: Blind spots are something that we're dealing with more and more all of the time. SUVs, minivans, pickup trucks, they're becoming more and more popular. Obviously we're very in love with these vehicles, so they're here to stay. But they're very unsafe in respect of the blind spots. We don't appreciate how dangerous they are. These accidents are taking place all of the time. We don't even know how frequently they're occurring by the way, but it's something that we need to learn more about and we need to make changes about it. We need to make safety changes for all of the families in the country.

COLLINS: And this is clearly where you're focusing your attention and your energies now...

GULBRANSEN: Absolutely.

COLLINS: ... trying to make sure this doesn't happen to other families.

GULBRANSEN: It should not happen to anybody else. It's happening at an alarming rate, and it shouldn't happen to anyone else. It should not.

COLLINS: All right, well, on that note, let's go ahead and bring in Janette Fennell now.

Janette, in fact, the numbers, at least that we have here, 58 child deaths per year. You say there are safety products that can be developed to cut down on these awful tragedies?

FENNELL: Absolutely. I mean, I think everybody would appreciate another set of eyes, especially eyes in the back of their head. But there are products -- there is technology that's available today that would absolutely help to prevent these tragedies from ever happening again.

COLLINS: What are those things? Explain them to us.

FENNELL: Well, there are a myriad of products that are available, but they kind of, I would say, group into two different areas. One would be the video camera systems, and then the other would be the sensing systems -- radar, microwave -- those types of systems. And personally I think a combination of those two systems would be a great way to basically eliminate this problem that we're having with the huge blind spots behind the higher and bigger cars that we're driving today.

COLLINS: Would this equipment be something that most Americans could afford?

FENNELL: Yes, I think so. Right now, you can put these different products on your car, anywhere from maybe $200 to $800. It just kind of depends on what you get and the system you have installed.

But in talking with people who make the camera systems and different systems, they're saying that if you get these put on your car in the actual production, you know, right off the -- in the factory, I mean, these things maybe would add $100 to the price of your car.

COLLINS: That sounds pretty low, especially for the payoff if this does work. Janette, thanks so much.

Dr. Gulbransen, we were looking at some pictures just a minute ago...

GULBRANSEN: Right.

COLLINS: ... of something called the Reverse Aid.

GULBRANSEN: Right.

COLLINS: That is now a piece of equipment that you own.

GULBRANSEN: Right. We now own that, and had I owned that, none of this would have happened. Anyone who is purchasing a vehicle with a large blind spot really should have one of these. You know, they must make a change. Ideally, like Janette was saying, the video combined with the audio would be ideal, but if you had to do one thing, please get a camera. It's very simple. It sounds like a big deal, but it's not. It's very simple. You put it on the car, and you can see tremendous visibility when you're backing up, and it makes backing up so much safer.

COLLINS: We want to take a minute here to go ahead and read a statement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They do say that the "NHTSA is examining the problem. We are going through the death certificates of non-highway fatalities. The issue is still under investigation. We are not at the point where we have mechanical solutions or regulations."

How do you feel about that?

GULBRANSEN: Well, you know, there is what Janette Fennell is certainly putting together some legislation, and hopefully it will get through. It's called the Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Car Act. And basically, the NHTSA has to set a database, we have to collect this information to understand how frequently this is this occurring, which we do not have an understanding from them. And then we have to review the technology, test it, see which one works and which doesn’t, and ultimately get them implemented in the production of cars. That would be nice.

So, if we could do that, it would be a real important issue for everyone in this country, anyone who drives a vehicle with a large blind spot.

COLLINS: All right, thank you so much for being here.

GULBRANSEN: Well, thank you.

COLLINS: We know that it probably doesn't get any easier each time you talk about it.

GULBRANSEN: No.

COLLINS: But we're glad you're here. Dr. Greg Gulbransen and also Janette Fennell, we appreciate your time this morning to both of you.

For more information on these products that we've been talking about and child safety, you can visit Janette's Web site atkidsandcars.org. You see it there.

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