I just backed over my kid, it must be the cars fault!

rickhamilton620 said:
The simple act of the bumper knocking him/her down could do damage..esp if the child hits their head on concrete. It's not just the wheels that can do damage. It's not like people here in the US just back out at warp speed all the time either, :rolleyes: give us a tad bit more credit than that. If a child is close enough to the car so you can't see them, chances are they're so close that as soon as you start reversing you've pushed them violently down onto the ground.
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I could find you a trillion and one situations where a child can hit his head. It's called living life, there are accidents in life. Hell my nanny left me for a second alone on her bed and I fell right on my head soon after. I cried it off and kept living my life.
I understand with people trying to protect their children, it's our nature. But the lengths where people sometimes go... unless you put a helmet on your child, dress him in fire proof overalls and keep him in a padded room forever... and even then he could choke on his food.
 
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Its obvious Mpicco doesn't have any experience with small children. It doesn't take much to knock them down and their skulls are still very fragile so taking a real hit to concrete could cause damage without a car even backing over them. Lastly little kids don't usually get up right away when they are knocked down. They tend to sit there for a second trying to figure out what the fuck happened and if they hit there head hard enough they are just going to sit there and cry not move.
 
I just told you i fell on my head from about 3 feet. I've heard that spine chilling sound of a THUD of a child hitting their heads hard against the floor. I've seen them trip and get bloody noses. I've been around babies pretty much all my life, cousins mostly, I now have a 2 year old godson. I know they fall and hit their heads all the time, the point is, this will happen no matter how many security measures you take. If you're careless with your mirrors while backing out, you'll be careless about the cameras all the same. Accidents happen and will keep happening.
 
What I would really love is to see the NHTSA report, the numbers are wonderfully vague.
 
mpicco said:
If you're careless with your mirrors while backing out, you'll be careless about the cameras all the same. Accidents happen and will keep happening.
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The thing is though, none of the mirrors required today on USDM cars will let you view that blind area directly behind the decklid.
 
mpicco said:
No, just... No. Source on that ridiculous percentage.
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How is that ridiculous? Even mechanical failure (such as the aforementioned Toyota SA issues) can generally be overcome by an attentive driver.
The simple act of the bumper knocking him/her down could do damage..esp if the child hits their head on concrete. It's not just the wheels that can do damage. It's not like people here in the US just back out at warp speed all the time either, give us a tad bit more credit than that. If a child is close enough to the car so you can't see them, chances are they're so close that as soon as you start reversing you've pushed them violently down onto the ground.
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This... Also there is the whole width of the car to get through, like for instance on big ass SUV's that so many Americans with kids drive (nfc why but its their choice). Add to that the fact that a lot of time people go VERY close to cars. Most of the time when my car is stationary and someone is walking around it they are walking less than a foot away even taking off the foot of the brake in an auto will make the car move quickly enough to knock a kid down.

Also the mass of the vehicle means that even a small bump carries quite a bit of energy.
 
AiR said:
I (and most of the people I meet) believe legislation is something to be avoided at all costs, thats why Sweden is the single country in Europe where it's still legal to talk on the phone while driving (altough everyone in all other countries do it too, just not legally). I've not met a single truck driver that can go a single day without calling someone or given new orders over the phone, and they manage perfectly well to both talk and write notes while driving.

People should be allowed to do almost anything as long as they're capable of doing it, but also pay a price if they cannot. Personally I would like to "draw the line" at eating while driving, a car is not an appropriate venue for ingesting food (even more so if you're driving). Still as I don't like legislation I wouldnt want to ban it outright, I'm sure there are foods and situations that I have not thought of where there are no prolems. However if you do run off the road with a whole kebab in your face it's only reasonable that your insurance payout is reduced with the appropriate amount given your carelessness.

I don't buy the commute argument, it's up to the individual to make time for eating in an appropriate way. Myself I do 200 km a day without eating on the road, I eat before and after.
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Those same truck drivers eat while driving.


narf said:
I highly doubt that.
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Why is it hard to believe 99.9% of accidents are caused by driver error?
 
Because a quick search will yield something like this:

Wikipedia said:
A 1985 study by K. Rumar, using British and American crash reports as data, found that 57% of crashes were due solely to driver factors, 27% to combined roadway and driver factors, 6% to combined vehicle and driver factors, 3% solely to roadway factors, 3% to combined roadway, driver, and vehicle factors, 2% solely to vehicle factors and 1% to combined roadway and vehicle factors.
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Yes it's the UK, yes is 1985, but it's probably about the same. I've crashed twice in my life (cosmetic damage once, and I wrote off a car the other time) and both times it was at night and with rain. I've been driving for 3 years and covered about 40,000 km. Coincidence much?
 
And driver was listed in all but two of those. And vehicle problems are generally caused/ignored by the driver, so that doesn't help the driver. I will stand by his statement, the percentage was off a bit, but not much.
 
The real reason eating while driving wont be outlawed in America? Try guessing the number of people who work in or operate a fast food restaurant that derives a significant portion of revenue from drive through operations. Now find a politician willing to tick off that many people.
 
mpicco said:
Who never hit their head hard as a baby or young child? Of course you won't remember but ask your mothers.... there's always a not so careful relative with weak arms...
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Erm...being shoved onto hard concrete seems 10x worse than being dropped onto what's most likely a carpeted surface indoors. :p
 
mpicco said:
Yes it's the UK, yes is 1985, but it's probably about the same.
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Cars have gotten significantly better since 1985. Granted not everyone drives brand new cars but majority on the road are from about 2000 on these days.
I've crashed twice in my life (cosmetic damage once, and I wrote off a car the other time) and both times it was at night and with rain. I've been driving for 3 years and covered about 40,000 km. Coincidence much?
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You don't think there was anything you could have done to prevent at LEAST one of those? I know that in both of my accidents (very minor) I made a judgement error.

Now this is purely my opinion but you can't legislate brains. There will always be idiot drivers and there will always be good drivers and there will always be good drivers that do stupid shit once in a while (I am embarrassed to think of some of the dumb shit I pulled). Eating, txting, talking on the phone, playing a video game, etc are just a few of the distractions you can have in a car. There is talking to your passengers, smoking, looking at shiny things on the side of the road and if you take eating away bad drivers will still crash because they will be doing something else.

What many of us don't realize/want to accept is that for the general populace driving is simply a more convenient way to get somewhere and they would love nothing more than self driving cars that don't back over their kids.

I don't know if this particular law is really worth it on all cars though, taller cars like SUV's, trucks and vans would be most benefited from some sort of a mirror/camera/sensor but smaller cars don't really need it. Though with the latest 4 door coupe thing you can't see jack out of normal cars neither... (I'll take a picture of my car so you can see how shitty it is, we are talking I don't have to turn around to back up because my ENTIRE rear window is visible from my OEM rear view mirror)
 
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If "Spend money on better brakes" is a driver error, then you could consider every accident a driver error because the driver could have avoided the accident by not driving, driving at a different time, taking a different route, ...
 
narf said:
If "Spend money on better brakes" is a driver error, then you could consider every accident a driver error because the driver could have avoided the accident by not driving, driving at a different time, taking a different route, ...
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You should change your nick to "reductio ad absurdum". Not maintaining the car properly is a driver error. I couldn't tell you how many times people would tell me "why would I buy new expensive tires? I don't race." Now mind you we are not talking people who absolutely need a car to get around and can't afford a nice set of tires here.
 
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