SUV's are a hazard to children

University of Utah Study Shows Minivans, Trucks Pose Greatest Risk of Backing Over Children in Driveways

The June 2006 issue of Pediatric Emergency Care will publish a report that shows :

1. Utah children are more likely to be backed over in residential driveways than children in other states. According to N. Clay Mann, Ph.D., the study's lead investigator and director of research at the Intermountain Injury Control Research Center, the risk of injury may be increased because Utah has the highest number of persons per household and the youngest population of all 50 states, with nearly 33 percent of residents under the age of 18.

2. A child is up to 2 ½ times more likely to be backed over by a minivan or truck than by a car.

3. Children hit by high-profile vehicles, such as trucks, SUVs or minivans, are more likely to require hospitalization, surgery, and treatment in an intensive care unit than children backed over by cars.

The study, using medical records and police reports, collected back-over injury data for Utah children under age 10 from 1998 to 2003.


In January 2005 Partners for Child Passenger Safety Fact and Trend Report, Children’s Hospital reported that SUVs in child-involved State Farm crashes increased from 15% in 1999 to 26% in 2004.. I posted before about the deaths in SUV's


The Baltimore Sun carries a story today ....
A 3-year-old girl was fatally injured when she wandered behind the car her mother was driving and was struck in the family's driveway at Fort Detrick in Frederick, military authorities said yesterday.

Vada Schoon, walked out of the house Wednesday while her mother was repositioning her Ford Escape, said Chuck Dasey, a Fort Detrick spokesman.

She suffered severe head injuries in the accident and was treated at the scene by emergency medical technicians, then taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

...and kids get killed in other ways in SUV's

An SUV with 8 people from 2 families veered off a highway in Berbiguieres, a town in the Dordogne region SW France today and slammed into trees, killing four people, including two 10-year-olds, and seriously injuring four others, police said yesterday.

The driver , who survived , was Keith Bridges, a 50-year-old former officer with Scotland Yard who lives in Berbiguieres. He survived the accident and tests show he had twice the accepted level of alcohol in his blood.T

Those killed were identified as Andrew Dyer, 41, and Gabriella Dyer, 10, of Bridgewater, England; Julie-Ann Bridges, 43, and Bethany Bridges, 10. Surviving with injuries were Tracey Dyer, 38; Kieran Dyer, 4; and Charlotte Dyer, 7, as well as the driver, officials said.