Better Rear View could help save lives.

[stickers]

Delays litter long road to vehicle rearview rules - Yahoo! Autos

Judy Neiman's 2006 Cadillac Escalade didn't have any cameras installed. They weren't added as an optional package until the following model year. Instead, her vehicle was equipped with a "rear parking assist system" — bumper sensors, an alarm and lights that are supposed to go off within 5 feet of objects or people.

Neither Neiman nor the 10-year-old neighbor boy who had accompanied her and her daughter to the bank on Dec. 8, 2011, would recall hearing any alert, according to a police report.

Sydnee was carrying her purple plastic piggy bank and account book, so she could deposit $5 from her weekly allowance. After the transaction, Neiman slid behind the wheel and waited for the children. She heard the door slam, then saw the boy sitting on the right side of the back seat as she put the car into reverse.

She figured Sydnee was seated behind the driver's seat. Instead, the boy had gotten in first, telling Sydnee to go around and get in from the left side. He would later tell a police investigator that the girl had dropped her piggy bank on her way around the SUV.

Even if she were upright, at 4 feet, 3 inches tall, Sydnee would have been practically invisible through the rear window, the bottom edge of which was a few inches taller than she was.

As the first anniversary of her daughter's death passed, Neiman hoped that sharing her story might spare other parents from enduring the pain she feels every day.

She tortures herself by replaying a conversation she had with Sydnee the summer before she died. Her daughter always had taken her heart condition, a congenital defect, in stride. She never complained or showed fear, despite her many surgeries.

Then one night Sydnee started crying, and she wouldn't tell her mother what was troubling her until the next morning.

"She said, 'I don't want to die, Mom,' and when she died, that's all I could think about. She didn't want to die," Neiman says. "She survived four open heart surgeries. If God had taken her at that time, I could accept it. But who could take her with her being hit by my car? And my hitting her?"

This 2010 photo shows Sydnee Neiman on a family trip. She died after her mother accidentally backed over her

It breaks my heart to read this article of a mother anguishing in pain and guilt for accidentally backing her daughter, taking away her life.
The safety features did not performed what's its supposed to do, backing up sensors did not worked. Couldn't imagine how much pain this is if it happens to any of us.

[lowslowbenz]

Moral lesson?

[CoDer]

Moral lesson?

Make sure that all the kids are on board and the way is clear before putting the gear on reverse.

Nakaka init ng ulo tong article na to, yung nanay na lang sana ang nasagasaan.

[marg]

Moral lesson?

Madalas, katangahan ng driver.

[jodski]

Seriously ... it's the responsibility of the driver to check and double check if all the passengers are onboard specially the kids...

Whatever happens wag pairalin ang katamaran mag check ...

[stickers]

Make sure that all the kids are on board and the way is clear before putting the gear on reverse.

Nakaka init ng ulo tong article na to, yung nanay na lang sana ang nasagasaan.

The kid survived 4 surgeries only to die because her mother failed to check if she was already on board before backing up. I don't know, should the manufacturer be partly liable since the sensors failed to work? How come the sensors missed the kid if she was walking her way around the other side of the SUV.

[InDeep]

The kid survived 4 surgeries only to die because her mother failed to check if she was already on board before backing up. I don't know, should the manufacturer be partly liable since the sensors failed to work? How come the sensors missed the kid if she was walking her way around the other side of the SUV.

how fast was she backing up?

[CoDer]

The kid survived 4 surgeries only to die because her mother failed to check if she was already on board before backing up. I don't know, should the manufacturer be partly liable since the sensors failed to work? How come the sensors missed the kid if she was walking her way around the other side of the SUV.

Manufacturer clearly cannot be blamed for her stupidity.

What kind of parent would put the gear in reverse without checking whether all the kids are on board or the way is clear?

[Ry_Tower]

Rule of thumb kasi is go around the vehicle every time you are going to reverse. Just to check if may harang sa likod ng car.

[InDeep]

Manufacturer clearly cannot be blamed for her stupidity.

What kind of parent would put the gear in reverse without checking whether all the kids are on board or the way is clear?

it could be your kid or anyone else's kid.