Jul 7, 2023 2 min read

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 60 children are run over by slow, forward-moving vehicles in parking lots and driveways every week.

Of those, 58 are treated in hospital emergency rooms, and two die.

A 1-year-old child in North Versailles became one of the latter. On July 4, Arionna Porter was killed by an SUV in a parking lot.

These tragedies are called “front-overs” and are caused when a driver moving forward very slowly doesn’t see the victim in the area directly in front of the vehicle.

According to Kids and Car Safety, a national nonprofit dedicated to saving the lives of children and pets in and around motor vehicles, these accidents are 100% predictable and preventable.

Kids and Car Safety offers the following tips for parents:

n Children should always be directly and actively supervised any time a vehicle is being moved at the home and 100% of the time in or near parking lots.

n Always carry toddlers or use strollers or shopping carts in parking lots or near vehicles.

n Install childproof door knob covers on all outside doors of the home and pair them with stick-on door alarms so you know if a child is attempting to sneak out of the house.

Children under age 5 are the most at-risk for both front-overs and back-overs because they cannot be seen by the driver. Toddlers do not have the cognitive ability to understand danger and are quick to dart away from caregivers or sneak out of the home to say goodbye.

Every vehicle has a blind zone in front, on the sides and behind it where small children cannot be seen by the driver, even when using mirrors correctly.

Front-over deaths of children have grown significantly over the past decade as vehicle designs have changed and large trucks and SUVs have grown in popularity. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the blind zone.

Consumer Reports determined that some larger trucks have a front blind zone that is up to 11 feet larger than that of a typical sedan.

Kids and Car Safety is calling for “360” or “birds-eye view” camera systems as well as pedestrian automatic emergency braking (PAEB) in all new vehicles to prevent front-over tragedies.

Recently, a federal bill has been introduced calling for technology in all vehicles that can prevent front-over tragedies.

Visit www.kidsandcars.org for more information and safety tips.