[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 142 (Tuesday, November 1, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12129-S12130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. CLINTON (for herself and Mr. Sununu):
  S. 1948. A bill to direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue 
regulations to reduce the incidence of child injury and death occurring 
inside or outside of passenger motor vehicles, and for other purposes; 
to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, today I am introducing The Cameron 
Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act of 2005 with my colleague Senator 
Sununu, a bill to improve the child safety features in new vehicles. 
This bill is named after a 2 year old Long Island boy who was killed 
when his father accidentally backed over him. Although this effort is 
too late to save little Cameron, it is named in his honor and aimed at 
preventing other families from suffering the same fate.
  I also want to thank my friend and colleague, Congressman Peter King 
for championing this issue in the House of Representatives.
  While we hear a great deal about automobile accidents, we don't hear 
nearly as much about non-traffic automobile accidents, which can be 
just as tragic.
  Since 1999, close to 975 children have died in non-traffic, non-crash 
incidents. This translates into a death almost every other day. The 
average age of victims in these cases is just 1 year old. And in 70 
percent of backover cases, a parent, relative or close friend is behind 
the wheel.
  As of October 15th of this year, there have been 317 non-traffic 
incidents resulting in ER treatment--tragically, 188 resulted in 
fatalities. New York State alone has suffered over 60 non-traffic 
incidents, 15 of them fatalities. These tragedies are heart-wrenching, 
not only due to the unimaginable suffering these families endure, but 
also because they are preventable.
  The Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act makes all passenger 
motor vehicles safer in three important ways. First, it requires a 
detection system to alert drivers to the presence of a child behind the 
vehicle. This system will prevent backing up incidents involving death 
and injury, especially to small children and the disabled. Second, it 
will ensure that power windows automatically reverse direction when 
they detect an obstruction--preventing children from being trapped, 
injured or killed when playing with power car windows. And finally, the 
bill will require the vehicle service break to be

[[Page S12130]]

engaged in order to prevent vehicles from unintentionally rolling away.
  Just as important, this bill will help parents by making them more 
aware of the dangers their vehicles pose to kids. Our legislation 
establishes a child safety information program to collect non-traffic, 
non-crash incident data and to disseminate vital information to parents 
about ways to mitigate the dangers cars pose.
  This bill proves that with modest, cost-effective steps, we can 
prevent many tragic car-related accidents from occurring. The 
technology exists that can save children's lives at relatively low cost 
and new innovations are being developed all the time. Power window 
sensors, for example, cost only $8-12 a window. Brakeshift interlocks 
are already standard in most passenger vehicles, but where they aren't, 
they cost only $5 a car. Backover warning systems cost approximately 
$300 a car, but they are still far cheaper than the DVD systems that 
can run up to $2000 and stereo systems that go for up to $800--costs 
that are commonly absorbed into the cost of new cars. There is no 
reason that we are not using these new technologies to save lives.
  This kind of modest regulatory response to a safety problem has many 
precedents. Back in 1956, in response to a slew of tragic child 
suffocations, Congress passed the Refrigerator Safety Act to ensure 
that refrigerators could be opened from the inside and no child could 
again be trapped inside. When 156 kids died from airbags, the Federal 
Government regulated a design change. The government even changed the 
design of garage doors after 56 children were killed by them.
  This is a comparable situation--this inexpensive technology could 
save thousands of children's lives.
  So, I am proud to be introducing the Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars 
Safety Act of 2005 today and I urge all my colleagues to join me in 
supporting this bill. Together, we can make cars and kids safer in this 
great country.
                                 ______