President's Message

Kirk Hendrix

THE DANGER AND TRAGEDY OF FRONTOVER ACCIDENTS

On April 25, 2019, I was shaken when watching a special report on WTHR-13 (Indianapolis’ NBC television affiliate). The nature of the story was frontover accidents. These accidents involve children who are seated in front of an SUV and not readily-visible from the driver’s perspective. In short, they are in harm’s way without they or the driver knowing it.

Every day we see more SUV’s on the road. Some of the reasons these vehicles are so popular — sitting up higher, having a greater, clearer peripheral view — are also the same reasons for frontover accidents. Millions of these popular vehicles have a hidden blind spot that puts children at an increased risk of being injured or killed. That blind spot is actually a blind zone and is located directly in front of the vehicle. The national injury and fatality database for KidsAndCars shows that each year at least 3,000 children are injured and 60 killed in frontover accidents in the United States. That is a shocking 89% increase in the last 10 years over the previous decade. Many drivers are unaware, as was I, of the danger surrounding front-over accidents.

The WTHR news program “13 Investigates” conducted several demonstrations by lining up small children (seated on the ground), train-style, extending out from the front of the vehicles. The driver was then asked to sit in a normal, comfortable position of their SUV and then leaning forward, to illustrate the distance before the driver could see a child in front of their car. Of course, the blind zones can vary based on height of the driver, size of the object in front of the vehicle, position of the driver’s seat and incline or decline of the driving surface. The demonstrations minimized those variables by using a driver who was the average height of a woman in the United States and conducting them on a flat surface. The results showed most SUVs, minivans and pickup trucks have a front blind zone of 5-10 feet, some larger SUVs extending all the way to 15 feet, two to three times larger than most sedans and compact cars. What that meant is that as many as 12 children could be seated on the ground, directly in front of an SUV, and that the driver couldn’t see any of them. It would be very easy for them to proceed forward and cause injury or even death to those children. It was absolutely startling.

Auto manufacturers continually work to make vehicles safer. And we have come light years on that front. For instance, rear-facing cameras are now mandatory in all new vehicles sold in the United States and their installation starting more than a decade ago has caused the number of backover injuries and deaths to plummet. Some vehicles have front cameras. However, the number of vehicles with front-camera technology is limited and they are, at this time, optional. Many owners are not even aware that their vehicles have that technology. With or without front-camera technology, awareness of our vehicle’s blind zone and of the environment/situation in which we find ourselves, along with the exercise of caution, could lead to a decline in these needless injuries and deaths to one of our most vulnerable populations – our children. We can never be careful enough.

Kirk Hendrix
President & CEO
AAA Hoosier Motor Club