Who's hiding behind your car?
Behind every car there's a patch of ground you can't see from the driver's seat, not in the mirrors and not through the rear window. Small children fit in it easily.
Before you reverse
Before you get in, walk around the car and look behind it. It takes ten seconds.
Have children stand beside you, or touch a "safe spot" on the side of the car, until you've parked or driven off.
A reversing camera shrinks the blind zone but can miss the corners, and it's harder to see on a bright day. Use the camera, the sensors and your mirrors, and reverse slowly.
Driveways and villa compounds are where most of these accidents happen, often with a family member at the wheel.
Sources: Consumer Reports, "The danger of blind zones" (March 2012), measured how far behind each vehicle a 71 cm (28-inch) cone had to be before a 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) driver could see its top. The averages: wagons and hatchbacks about 2.7 m (9 ft), mid-sized sedans 4.0 m (13 ft), mid-sized SUVs 5.5 m (18 ft), large SUVs 5.8 m (19 ft) and pickups 7.3 m (24 ft). For a 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in) driver they were about 1.5 to 1.7 times as long. 71 cm is about the height of a toddler, or of a small child sitting down. KidsAndCars.org backover fact sheet: backovers happen mainly in driveways and parking lots, and in over 70% of cases a parent or close relative is driving. Every car and driver is different, so check yours: sit in the driver's seat and have an adult walk behind the car until you can see them.