NORWALK, Conn. — Kayla Tinnen will remember May 12, 2016 as the worst day of her life.
She and her family were getting ready to go on a school field trip to a local museum. Her 5-year-old son Peter Tinnen-Strmiska was playing in the driveway of his grandparent’s Norwalk home – a normal sight for the family.
As his grandfather pulled into the driveway, he couldn’t see what was in front of him. Peter was hit and killed.
“I just heard my mother gasp, ‘It’s the baby!’” Tinnen said. “I ran up and said, 'Peter, Peter!' His eyes flashed twice and then his eyes never opened again.”
The kindergartener was taken to Norwalk Hospital. A helicopter was ready to take him to Yale New Haven Hospital but it was too late.
These deadly accidents happen hundreds of times a year, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In 2016, 240 non-vehicle occupants were killed in forward-moving vehicle accidents. It jumped to 390 in 2017, 393 in 2018, down slightly to 382 in 2019, and back up again to 526 in 2020.
The NHTSA said 12,247 people were killed between 2016 and 2020 in non-traffic crashes. These happen off public roadways like parking lots, driveways, or private roads.
Among non-occupants, 46% were killed by vehicles moving forward. Tens of thousands of people are injured each year by this as well.
At this time, NHTSA said the data is “inadequate” to specify what percentage of the forward-moving accidents are “front overs,” a crash where the driver cannot see past the car’s hood. That data collection is something the agency is looking into.
In Tinnen’s case, her father could not see past the hood of his car where his grandson was. There was a bump at the end of the driveway. The bump has been flattened out a bit since the accident, but Tinnen said there was a point in time when cars would scratch the bottom of their vehicle on the steep incline.
May 12, 2016 was a typical day. Tinnen, now living in Bridgeport, said it has impacted her family’s life including Peter’s brother.
“Years ago, when this happened though, like every single time he saw a little kid on the street, he would just start balling. Every time he saw a little boy on the street,” Tinnen said. “He’s beyond that. He’s starting to begin his productive adult life.”
She said her mother now has short-term memory loss and doctors attribute it to the trauma she experienced from being the passenger in the car.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal is working to prevent deaths like this from occurring. On Monday, he introduced the Standards to Prevent (STOP) Frontovers Act to require all new cars to have a front-facing camera, sensor, or other technology that alerts drivers if something is in front of the vehicle they can’t see.
“This mandate for front-facing devices like cameras or sensors will save lives,” Blumenthal said. “Tragic frontover incidents are needlessly killing or severely injuring kids, and we must act."
A law passed by Congress in 2008 has required most cars and trucks produced since May 1st, 2018 to have a camera displaying the rear image. At this time, there is no law requiring the same for the front.
This new legislation would require NHTSA to issue a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) that requires vehicles to have technology helping drivers detect and respond to objects in front of them. It would require NHTSA to begin the rulemaking process within a year and issue a final standard within two years as well as requires the agency to define the term "frontover" for more accurate data collection.
It would also direct NHTSA to "update its Non-Traffic Surveillance data to more accurately count frontover injuries and deaths to provide critical and more accurate information to the Agency and the public about the prevalence of frontovers."
“There has to be some kind of camera or sensor to tell drivers that there is a child in front of the car that may not be visible over the hood,” the senator said. “The cost of preventing these tragedies is well worth whatever minimal expense there may be.”
Some vehicles do have a front-facing device but it is not widely available. NHTSA said it’s mostly found in high-end, luxury models. Blumenthal said consumers want this safety device.
“If they know that this device is available, they will show by their feet and their wallets,” he said.
NHTSA said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed by President Joe Biden in November 2021, will allow the agency to “accelerate its rulemakings and, consequently, the deployment of safety technologies, such as pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems.” The agency said it is developing a proposed rule that would set a safety standard for automatic emergency braking.
Blumenthal said the device can be cheap to mass produce and urges car manufacturers to take it upon themselves to install them on new models. He said it’s “disappointing” the safety tool is not more widely available and that the NHTSA data will persuade Congress to vote for the legislation he has proposed.
Tinnen said a tool like that on her father’s car could have prevented her son's death.
“Getting this equipment literally is a life-or-death question. It’s not just casually are we going to do some little thing to add another bell or whistle to our car, and I just would love for manufacturers to really get that,” she said. “If you had something that just made a couple beeps the same way that when he backs up the car beeps if he’s within a foot of something, just something to just help. A couple little beeps will help change the situation.”
Today, Peter would be nearing his teen years. His mom imagines him as feisty as he was when he was a kid. She had a special bond with her second son as he was the first child she could be a stay-at-home mom with.
“My other two kids were easy peasy. They were totally obedient, A student, what have you. This little joker was just off-the-wall,” she said. “We really were inseparable.”
Parts of Peter’s heart were donated to two little girls in Massachusetts. His mom said the hardest thing to hear was that her son’s heart would live on in other children, but she’s glad it is. Now, she and Sen. Blumenthal hope change can prevent other families from dealing with the horrific tragedy too.
“I would say we really have no control over this life so any bit of a possibility that you can to grab on to the tiniest thing that you can to stop something that’s just absolutely horrific from happening do it,” she said.
Tony Black is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. He can be reached at tblack@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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