The Zoie Foundation,  Kids and Cars, parents, consumer and safety groups have worked diligently over the last several years to raise awareness and change legislation regarding child safety in and around motor vehicles.  Hard work and diligence has paid off, and now these safety regulations will be mandated.

After being approved in the House in December, 2007, Effective Thursday, February 14, 2008, H.R. 1216 known as The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007 has passed unanimously through the Senate.  The bill was named after two-year-old Cameron was killed when he was accidentally backed over by an SUV due to the blind zone behind the vehicle. 

The bill will direct the U.S. Department of Transportation to issue safety standards to decrease the incidents of child injury and death, including:

• Power Window Entrapment - Technology will ensure that power windows and panels automatically reverse direction when they detect an obstruction to prevent children from being strangled, trapped or killed.
• Backover Incidents - drivers including parents cannot see children behind a moving or parked vehicle. Technology will be implemented to eliminate these blind zones.
• Rollaway Incidents - Technology will require that in order to take the vehicle out of park,  the vehicle service brake must be depressed.

Before the passing of H.R. 1216, the federal government did not formally collect information and data regarding non-traffic incidents. This bill requires that a database of non-crash incidents be established.  In addition, the department must develop a program to educate the public regarding non-traffic dangers to young children.  

According to KIDS AND CARS,  more than 1,350 of our children have been killed in non-traffic incidents since the year 2000, and at least 227 of those fatalities occurred in 2007. 

A 2002 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that roughly 9,100 children are treated yearly in hospital emergency rooms due to non-traffic incidents.  

We are extremely grateful that these safety standards will be required for all of our new vehicles.  However, we know that our work is not done.  There are still thousands and thousands of unsafe vehicles in circulation today. The Zoie Foundation will continue to work diligently to inform the public of the unknown dangers of power windows and what a parent or consumer can do in order to keep their families safe.

The initial Petition was filed in 2003.