U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee member, recently sent a letter to Stephen Cliff, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administrator, urging the agency to do something about frontovers.
Frontovers occur when a child in the front of a vehicle is run over because the child is not visible above the hood and none of the vehicle safety systems issued a warning. The blind zones in the front of some vehicles are as large as 16 feet, demonstrations by investigative reporters have shown.
“I am extremely troubled that large blind zones in front of SUVs are reportedly causing senseless deaths of children,” Blumenthal said. “I am sure you agree that even one child’s death is one too many. I write to ask for an update on steps by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to collect and make public relevant data and stop these preventable frontover tragedies.”
Currently, there are no front-visibility standards, and front-visibility technology offered by auto manufacturers is an expensive upgrade.
Visibility standards for backover accidents have existed since 2007.
Blumenthal asked that the NHTSA publish up to date nontraffic incident data. The last data summary was in 2018 and only covered incidents through 2015.