The Volusia Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the accident that killed 22-month-old Avery Lynn Sexton on the beach May 23 in New Smyrna Beach, but said the incident report was not ready.
Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Vicki Karr wrote in an email to The News-Journal on May 27 that crash or accident reports take longer to process.
Meanwhile, a children’s safety advocate group, Kids and Car Safety, called the tragic death of the child a “frontover” incident, a situation where the driver may not have seen the child over the hood of the car. The group has also called for cameras to be installed on new vehicles’ blind spots as standard equipment to save children’s lives.
Child killed on beach in New Smyrna ran into traffic lane, sheriff’s office says
On May 23, the sheriff’s office said that a preliminary investigation revealed that the child ran into a traffic lane and was struck by a vehicle around 4:30 p.m. near East Seventh Avenue., the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
The child was taken to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead a 4:35 p.m., investigating deputies said.
The driver of the vehicle remained on scene, and speed or impairment were not factors that contributed to the fatal crash, the sheriff’s office said.
New Smyrna death of child has children’s safety advocate calling for cameras on vehicles’ blind spots
Kids and Car Safety is an advocate group founded by Janette Fennell, who with her husband, survived an armed kidnapping where they were locked in the trunk of their car in 1995, according to the nonprofit’s website.
After the kidnapping, Fennell lobbied the auto industry and federal government to have an internal trunk release added to vehicles. After her successful campaign for the trunk release, Fennell was called upon to help on issues such as power window strangulations, frontovers, backovers, hot car tragedies, vehicles being inadvertently knocked into gear by children alone in cars, and other safety issues, according to Kids and Car Safety.
On May 27, the nonprofit weighed in on the death Avery Lynn Sexton, calling it a frontover incident.
In a news release, the nonprofit said Avery Lynn Sexton was one of thousands of children younger than 5 that are hurt or killed every year because a driver moving forward very slowly didn’t see them in the area directly in front of the vehicle.
“These tragedies are . . . 100% predictable and preventable!” Kids and Car Safety stated in the news release.
Advocacy group says ‘the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the blind zone’
In its May 27 statement, the group said vehicles have blind zones in the front, sides, and back of the car or truck, where drivers can’t see small children.
“Frontover deaths of children have grown significantly over the past decade as vehicle designs have changed and large trucks and SUVs have grown in popularity,” the nonprofit stated. “The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the blind zone.”
The nonprofit said that cameras with a 360-degree view or “birdseye view” can prevent frontover accidents and others caused by blind spots.
“Kids and Car Safety is calling for ‘360’ or ‘birdseye view’ camera systems in all new vehicles so that drivers can see what is around their vehicle before moving,” the organization said. “Additionally, automakers should be adding Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB) to all vehicles that can detect small children and other vulnerable road users even at low speeds.”
The nonprofits executive director, Amber Rollins, said safety features should be standard in all vehicles. “Life-saving safety features like Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking and birdseye view camera systems should be standard safety features in all motor vehicles because all children deserve to be safe no matter what vehicle their family drives,” Rollins stated n the news release. “Pedestrian fatalities are on the rise with the popularity of larger trucks and SUVs. This is a problem that will continue to devastate families until technology is standard to protect very small children and other vulnerable road users.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Safety group calls for blind spot cameras after child’s NSB death
Reporting by Patricio G. Balona, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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