GM sponsoring child-safety campaign

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 29, 2006 | by Lois M. Collins Deseret Morning News

Utah's "Spot the Tot" campaign is going on the road. A grant from General Motors is allowing the National Safe Kids Coalition to roll out the awareness campaign across the country, starting in 10 cities.

On Thursday, campaign developers Primary Children's Medical Center, the Utah Department of Health and Safe Kids Utah held a news conference to highlight the program -- with a couple of disturbing demonstrations.

Ten preschool children from the health department's on-site day- care center lined up two feet apart behind an SUV, and one of the moms got in, sat up tall and looked behind her. She could only see the last two children, standing 18 and 20 feet away. Had she backed up, she might have seriously injured or even killed eight of them.

It's all too real to Kristi and Travis Johnson of Woods Cross. A year ago, a close friend was backing down their driveway and didn't see their son, Mitchell, then 2, playing on his tricycle off to one side. The tricycle was pulled up under the front wheels as she reversed and Mitchell was squashed against the wheel. Travis Johnson and the devastated friend had to give the little boy CPR.

Today, the happy little redhead shows few signs of the trauma: a destroyed spleen, burst eardrums, damaged liver, broken bones and eyes that were red for a year from blood vessels that burst from the pressure. Until, that is, he pulls up his shirt with a shy smile and shows the scars left after his week in the hospital.

Utah is the only state that collects data on "rollovers," when a car hits a child, said Primary's child-advocacy manager, Janet Brooks.

From 1997-2005, 36 Utah children under age 10 died and more than 570 were injured in such accidents. Of the deaths, 26 occurred from 2002-2005. Most of the vehicles were trucks, vans and SUVs. But a similar demonstration with a family-sized car made two of the children invisible to the driver, who saw no one standing closer than eight feet away. Most vehicles involved in such incidents are moving slow, often in reverse, and usually not on roads.

Torine Brooks Creppy of the National Safe Kids Coalition said that around the nation, about 2,500 children are sent to emergency rooms each year.

Spot the Tot is simple: Drivers are asked to walk around their cars before getting in, paying attention to where any children are in the vicinity -- and to do it every time. "It takes 15 seconds," Brooks said. Inside the car, they should roll the window down and listen. They're also asked to teach children not to play around vehicles and to be aware.

The campaign was developed at the request of emergency-room doctors who were heartbroken at the injuries and deaths that were occurring. Parents are also reminded never to leave children alone around vehicles and to hold small children's hands when crossing areas like parking lots.

Equally sobering was a demonstration of how hot cars get in the sun. Wes Bender from the national coalition placed temperature sensors inside and outside a car. A slightly breezy 82 degrees outside was 145 degrees inside, "fatal within less than 10 minutes," he said. "Cracking the window doesn't make that much difference." Last year, there were 42 heat-related child deaths involving vehicles, and there have been almost 20 this year nationwide.

Local advocates also showed the preschoolers how to open a trunk from the inside, after warning them they should never, ever play in the trunk to begin with. The safety devices on new trunks, it was noted, were developed in response to a tragedy in Utah where five little girls died in the trunk of a car several years ago.

E-mail: lois@desnews.com