Local car dealer reacts to new rear camera order

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Thousands of passenger vehicles will roll off the assembly line this week in the United States.

And they’ll be equipped with backup cameras.

That technology is expected to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities..or just crashes caused by vehicles moving backwards.

News 12’s Ashley Henderson takes a close look at some of those new vehicles.

An estimated 210 people die and some 15,000 are injured each year in backover crashes.

National figures show that children younger than 5 account for 31% of backover deaths each year, and adults 70 and older account for 26%.
That’s the main reason for the new cameras.

These back up cameras will be a required safety feature on all the new vehicles manufactured starting now.

William Addington with Mountain View Nissan “You’re going to have the panoramic view, which is going to allow you to be able to be able to see not only what’s directly behind you, but also off to the sides, as well. And, depending on the vehicle it may have moving object detection, which will allow you to not only see what’s behind you, but also get an alert if something’s coming at you. . .”

The order from the National Highway Traffic safety administration has been debated for some time— since the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, which was passed by congress in 2008. Cameron was a child killed by such an accident.
But car buyers may ask..how much will this cost me?

“Increase in price, I really haven’t seen a difference, you may talk, fifty bucks, a hundred bucks difference than what it was without them, but realistically, what does that save, people wise?”

And, there’s another way the added cost will be offset.

“Incorporating the new backup camera system into the cars, it’s going to definitely decrease your insurance costs on the overall eventually because it adds more safety to the vehicle.”

But the goal is to add more safety devices to the cars and trucks.

“That’s going to be the huge part right there. It’s going to save additional lives and you can’t really put a monetary value on that.”