subject: Vehicle Back Up Camera: Newest Road Safety Development [print this page] An astounding 228 people a year die during back over accidents and an additional 18,000 are injured. The most vulnerable are children and the elderly. Poor visibility is the main culprit in most of these accidents though many people also feel that when they are pulling out slowly they do not need to be as vigilant as when they are speeding down the highway or driving through an area with high pedestrian traffic. Installing a vehicle backup camera is a matter of safety and a must for those with small children.
There is also the issue of financial damage. Although no data is available, the cost of all these back over accidents must be extremely high. The cost of injuries aside; let alone think of the cost to repair property, vehicles, and the time spent sorting out these accidents. It may seem like a large sum of money but a back up camera system is cheaper than even on trip to the auto body shop. Even the most careful drivers among us make mistakes.
Non-shattering glass was the first big development in car safety during the 1920's. Before the use of such glass many people would suffer cuts when windows broke. Sometimes windows would break not from an accident but from a rock or debris kicked up from another car. It was very dangerous. Luckily an accidental scientific breakthrough changed all that.
One day a scientist left a beaker in a lab overnight. The next day he knocked it over and it did not shatter. He thought maybe his glass coating chemical could be of use and he approached the Ford Company, which promptly began using it in all car models.
The next big development was seatbelts in the 1950s. Inventing the seatbelt was relatively easy; the hard part was getting people to use them. It took a multimillion dollar public safety campaign over many decades but seatbelt use is at an all-time high.
Back up camera systems represent the newest breakthrough in car safety. That is why the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is pushing so hard to drivers to install them in their vehicles. The NHTSA commissioned a number of studies on the subject and is now rolling out the campaign to encourage the use of vehicle back up cameras. Like all developments, it won't save any lives unless people use it. So make sure your vehicle is as safe as can be with a vehicle back up camera.
