This report responds to congressional interest and requirements to examine the safety problem of motor vehicle backover crashes involving pedestrians and the evaluation of available technologies that might help to reduce them. Special interest was expressed regarding the involvement of small children in these types of crashes. The size of the safety problem can only be roughly estimated because many of the backover crashes that occur on private property are not recorded in State or Federal crash databases, which focus on crashes occurring in traffic-ways. Supplementing NHTSA crash records with death certificate reports, backover crashes involving all vehicle types are estimated to cause at least 183 fatalities annually. In addition, between 6,700 and 7,419 injuries result from backover crashes per year. A significant portion of these injuries are minor. NHTSA tested several systems currently available as original equipment on vehicles and aftermarket products to evaluate their performance and potential effectiveness in mitigating backover crashes. The backover prevention technologies that are currently offered by vehicle manufacturers are marketed asparking aids, which are designed to assist attentive drivers in performing low speed parking maneuvers. Some aftermarket systems using similar technologies are being marketed as safety devices.
Vehicle Backover Avoidance Technology Study: Report to Congress
2006
65 pages
Report
No indication
English