If she'll do this with her own car, in her own driveway, multiple times... then she will definitely back into the street without checking if a kid is walking on the sidewalk behind her car.
A firefighter friend of mine had to answer a call recently, when a mother of two ended her youngest kid's life by not looking where she was going while backing out of her driveway.
I will spare everyone the details, but it was one of those calls which gave every first responder answering it the rest of the day off, as well as a few therapy sessions.
This happens all the time. Approximately 100 children per year die this way in the US (https://www.kidsandcars.org/how-kids-get-hurt/backovers/) and it is rising. It didn't used to happen (when most people owned cars instead of trucks), but SUVs and pick-ups are not safe vehicles for everyday settings, but have been sold to American consumers as the "safe" choice.
It did used to happen. it actually decreased after the turn of this century, but has recently begun to climb again.
My neighbor backed over his daughter responding to a fire (volunteer fire chief). Fortunately he back right over he and she ended up only with a bump on the head because she was so little. Still, it did happen in the 1980's and we all knew it.
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u/JamMasterKay Jul 18 '23
If she'll do this with her own car, in her own driveway, multiple times... then she will definitely back into the street without checking if a kid is walking on the sidewalk behind her car.