Vehicle Set Into Motion
Stories about kids and cars have a tendency to end badly. Each year hundreds of children are hospitalized or even killed after accidentally setting a car into motion.
Child Tragedies
These are just a few stories of children whose lives were lost from vehicles being accidentally set into motion.
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Check your vehicle to see if it can be shifted into gear without your foot on the brake.
Charts, Statistics, Graphics
KidsAndCars.org makes available charts and graphs to be downloaded for free and are excellent education materials. We encourage you to share, print, copy, distribute, or enlarge them; but we ask that no changes be made. Simply click on an image below to open a full PDF file of the chart.
News
Parents encouraged to helps kids be safe in and out of cars
July 15, 2012
When one Santaquin resident heard a big bang and then a vehicle crashed into the back of her house, she didn't quite know what to think. Little did she know that the driver of the vehicle was just 3 years old.
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Keeping Kids Safe Inside and Outside of Vehicles
October 03, 2011
Over the weekend, a 9-year-old got behind the wheel of his parents' Chevy Malibu and drove on what is considered one of Philadelphia's most dangerous roads. The boy lost control of the vehicle, went across the median, and hit a tree causing the vehicle to flip. The child is in critical, but stable condition.
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The Car Accidents You Don't Think About
September 01, 2010
Every year tens of thousands of children are rolled over, caught in power windows, and even unintentionally left in vehicles. But these incidents are as preventable as they are upsetting. This is what every parent needs to know
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Helping Your Kids Avoid Injury
May 22, 2010
By far, the leading cause of death in children is injuries, and there's a lot we can do to prevent those injuries, says Garry Gardner, a pediatrician in Darien, Ill., and chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on injury, violence and poison prevention. Injuries, in general, cause more deaths in kids over a year of age than the next seven leading causes of death combined.
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Automatic Transmission Autos Could Kill your Kid
January 11, 2010
Without you knowing it, your kid could be turning the ignition on to listen to a piece of comforting music on your car's radio. Bad thing when you have automatic transmission - the simple act of turning the ignition could cost your kid's very life.
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Baby Left in Car - Social Experiment
May 01, 2009
Observing the behaviour of people who pass by a vehicle with a baby locked.
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Kansas Group Says Shift Lock Prevents Accidents
January 12, 2009
A Kansas organization called Kids and Cars helped pass a law in 2008 that requires new cars to have this feature. Until all cars have it, it's up to parents to take away the opportunity for this kind of accident to happen.
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Child left in car fought for his life
August 14, 2008
3-year-old Cameron Thomas Boone's was strapped into his car seat in his mother's truck. His mother was to drop him off at a daycare before heading on to work at North Cypress Medical Center as an operation room technician. His mother forgot the daycare part.
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Mom Charged After Baby Left in Car Dies
July 10, 2008
PlusMom Charged After Baby Left in Car DiesMom Charged After Baby Left
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KidsAndCars.org Press Release
February 29, 2008
Washington, DC - Parents, consumer and safety groups applaud the U.S. Congress and the President for passing a law helping to protect children in and around motor vehicles. The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Act, signed by the President yesterday, addresses three serious causes of preventable injuries and fatalities to young children in and around motor vehicles: getting caught in an automatically closing power window; being struck by a backing vehicle because of an unacceptable blindzone; and placing a vehicle in gear that results in an uncontrolled roll away without having to depress the brake.
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Studies
Below are studies specific to injuries and deaths resulting from vehicles being unintentionally set into motion by children.
Rollover Injuries in Residential Driveways: Age-related Patterns of Injury
Injuries Associated With Hazards Involving Motor Vehicle “Rollaways”
Crush injuries to the head in children
Unsupervised Children in Vehicles: A Risk for Pediatric Trauma