The U.S. Congress required the Secretary of Transportation to examine fatalities and injuries in backing crashes in Public Law Number 109-59, Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) Section 2012 and to transmit a report about such crashes by January 1, 2009. A backover is a crash which occurs when a driver reverses into and injures or kills a nonoccupant such as a pedestrian or a bicyclist. Backovers can occur either on a public roadway or not on a public roadway, i.e., in a driveway or in a parking lot. The former are called traffic backovers and the latter non-traffic backovers. There are also “other backing crashes” that are not backovers, i.e., they do not involve a pedestrian or other nonoccupant, that occur when, for example, a driver backs into a tree or pole or when a driver backs out of a driveway or parking space and is struck by another vehicle. Together, backover crashes and other backing crashes are referred to as backing crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) existing Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and National Automotive Sampling System - General Estimates System (NASS-GES) already provide information regarding backing crashes that occur on public trafficways. However, data regarding non-traffic backovers (and other backing crashes), those which occur on private roads, driveways, and parking lots, have not routinely been collected by NHTSA. In response to SAFETEA-LU Sections 2012 and 10305 and Section 2(f) of the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, NHTSA developed the Not in Traffic Surveillance (NiTS) system to collect information about all non-traffic crashes, including non-traffic backover crashes. Combining the 221 NiTS backover fatalities with the annual average of 71 FARS backover fatalities produces an estimate of 292 total annual backover fatalities. The estimate of 292 annual backover fatalities is larger than the estimated 183 fatalities stated in the November 2006 Report to Congress Vehicle Backover Avoidance Technology Study, but NHTSA believes that the new estimate reflects a refinement in the methodology rather than a substantial change in the problem size. The estimated 14,000 NiTS backover injuries when combined with the 4,000 NASS-GES backover injuries produces an estimate of 18,000 total annual backover injuries. Most backover fatalities and injuries involve passenger vehicles. Among cases where the type of the striking vehicle is known, 78 percent of the backover fatalities and 95 percent of the backover injuries involved passenger vehicles. While people of all ages are victims of backovers, this report confirmed that children under 5 years old and adults 70 and older have an elevated risk of being backover victims compared to the rest of the population. Backover fatalities happen in a variety of areas with the most common area being the driveway, closely followed by other residential areas, public roadways, and nonresidential parking lots. Backover injuries tend to happen more frequently in nonresidential parking lots than other areas. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting