Blumenthal Statement On Lawsuit Filed Against DOT For Failing To Issue Rear Visibility Safety Standard

(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) issued a statement after Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and other auto safety groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for failing to issue the rear visibility safety standard, which would require rear cameras to come standard on all cars to reduce the likelihood of back-over accidents.

Congress mandated that DOT issue the safety standard in 2007, and gave the agency until 2011 to do so. Now, DOT says it needs until 2015 to do more research “to ensure the most protective and efficient rule possible.” More than 18,000 people – many of them children – are injured annually due to back-over accidents, and nearly 300 people are killed.  

“DOT has unconscionably delayed a rear visibility safety standard that can save thousands of children every year from car back-over accidents causing injury and death. This delay is outrageous and unacceptable. Rear cameras should come standard on all cars just as seat belts and airbags do, not just in expensive feature packages like sunroofs and power windows.

“Congress mandated that DOT issue this rule four years ago, and the agency announced another two-year delay just months ago. So DOT is quite literally breaking the law. Perhaps this lawsuit is what is needed to make DOT finally realize that there are human costs to bureaucratic failure.”