Reversing cameras and parking sensors on cars could save countless deaths from occurring, according to one road safety campaigner.
Car review website editor Clive Matthew-Wilson told Breakfast the technology should be made mandatory following two recent deaths involving young children on driveways.
“You don’t know when there is going to be a child in front of you — or behind you — but you can prepare yourself for it,” he said.
He said an American analysis suggested the combination of reversing camera and beeping parking sensors reduced overall reverse crashes by 42%.
“Even if you think of just damage to the vehicle, it’s a straight sensible investment. For people that can’t afford it, it should be an interest-free loan.
“We should start to be really aware of what’s happening behind us and around us.”
Matthew-Wilson said he had experienced his young child being hit by a vehicle first hand, saying it “stays with a parent for the rest of your life”.
According to government figures, New Zealand has one of the highest rates of driveway deaths in the world. Around 32% of child driveway injuries or deaths involve vehicles moving forward, not backwards.
“Everything in a car is designed for adults seeing adults, but little kids and very little and if you’ve got something beeping that tells you that they’re there, you’ve got a much higher chance of avoiding them,” Matthew-Wilson said.
He described the technology as “really, really simple”.
“It’s straight-forward and it should be part of the Warrant of Fitness check.”
He said the technology existed already and was “pretty cheap” , especially bought second-hand online.
“We’re talking about $50 and you can fit it yourself on Sunday,” he said.
A personal lesson in safety
Matthew-Wilson explained how his own reversing camera and parking sensors may have saved a child’s life when he was reversing out a parking space at a supermarket.
“I checked my three rear mirrors, they were clear.
“But, just as I began to reverse, a sudden beep warned me that a small child was running straight past the rear of my car.
“He appeared from nowhere, running across the reversing camera screen, then disappeared past the vehicle. He was too short to show up in my rear view mirror,” he said.
“If I had not had a reversing camera and parking sensors fitted, I could easily have reversed straight over this child.
Matthew-Wilson said a camera costs less than a cellphone, even less than a single tyre.
“[A camera] will provide far, far greater protection for our loved ones but also protect your own car against those terrible accidents when you back into a lamppost and cause damage.
“The technology exists here and now to solve these problems, its just not being fitted to the vehicles. And the bureaucrats have the attitude that if they do nothing, all vehicles will have it fitted anyway.
He said attempting to educate people on driving safely was an “expensive waste of time”.
“The reality is, it’s like seatbelts, you can’t say, ‘I recommend that you fit seatbelts to a vehicle’. They’re a basic safety feature and so should be reversing cameras and beeping parking sensors all around.”
Currently, about five Kiwi children died each year as a result of a driveway accidents, while another 12 were hospitalised.
