Vehicles Set in Motion

Each year hundreds of children are hospitalized or even killed after accidentally setting a car into motion. These tragedies usually take place when a child is left alone inside a vehicle or when a child gets into a vehicle on their own.

Many people have “their story” about the time they were in a vehicle that started rolling with them in it. It’s something you never forget.

We hope these terrible tragedies will be eradicated someday soon. Thanks to KidsAndCars.org’s leadership, a regulation now requires vehicles to come with a safety feature (BTSI) that prevents the vehicle from being put into gear without the driver’s foot on the brake. But, beware, not all vehicles on the road today have this important safety feature.

Check your vehicle to see if it can be shifted into gear without your foot on the brake.

Child Stories / Tragedies

These are just a few stories of children whose lives were lost from vehicles being accidentally set into motion.

Tragedies
Near Misses

Chart, 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.

VM image     Non-Fatal Child Incidents by Type
Vehicles Set in Motion Studies

Below are studies specific to injuries and deaths resulting from vehicles being unintentionally set into motion by children.