And that took 15 years.”Īs Gulbransen was a pediatrician and a visible member of his Long Island community, his outreach quickly yielded a response. “I’m going to take the hit and I’m gonna show you what I did, and I’m going to change the world. “So I said, ‘I don’t want the fucking money,’” he tells us. If he agreed to be silent, it wouldn’t be effective. His first thought was to hire a big Manhattan law firm to sue his car’s manufacturer and the dealership, but realized a civil suit would almost certainly entail a gag clause preventing him from talking to the media or testifying before public officials. Gulbransen channelled his grief and self-recrimination into action. “When died, that mission became very intense because you can really doubt your ability to be a good person, be a father and a parent.” “As fathers, our responsibility is to care and provide, and keep everybody safe and sound,” he said. But he was driven by his sense of duty as a father. No one would have blamed Gulbransen if he curled up in a ball and gave up. I’ve never been able to find a word in the English language that explains the feeling of immense loss.” “It was a like a bullet, it was like a drill right in my head. Indeed, Gulbransen says the pain is inexpressible. “Well, ratchet it up about a hundred points here. Everyone agrees with that,” Fennell said. “The worst thing that can ever happen is the death of your child. Janette Fennell, president and founder of Kids And Cars, worked closely with Gulbransen, who she described as “an incredible human being.” “You’d never go forward with the same poor visibility you have when you’re going backwards,” Gulbransen said. They could sell vehicles with no rear view mirrors or no windows going out the back, and it would be completely legal and almost certainly fatal. Prior to this legislation, the automobile industry didn’t have set standards for rear visibility. The newly enacted law dictates that all cars, buses, and trucks that weigh less than 10,000 pounds manufactured or made to sell in the United States are required to have rearview video systems that allow drivers to see a 10-foot by 20-foot zone directly behind the vehicle. The automobile safety child safety advocacy group Kids and Cars says most backover accidents occur in driveways and parking lots 60 percent involve large vehicles with poor rear visibility like trucks, SUVs, and minivans. Just under a third of the deaths involve children under five. After years of work and legal wrangling, the law finally took effect this month.Īccording to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an average of 210 fatalities and 15,000 injuries are caused every year by backover crashes similar to the one that took Cameron Gulbransen’s life. Working with public interest and safety advocacy groups, he successfully pressured the federal government into passing safety regulations aimed at preventing backover accidents like the one that took Cameron’s life. But instead, to honor his lost son, he’s relived it over and over in public for 14 years. No one would blame Gulbransen if he tried to block that moment from his memory forever. I jumped out of the car, tried to do CPR.” Gulbransen can still taste his blood in his mouth, remembers the way Cameron bled from his nose, his ears. He had gone under the vehicle, I had gone right over his head and killed him. “He was lying on his back with his blue blankie in his hand. “There, in front of me in the headlights, was Cameron,” Gulbransen said. But his precautions and character couldn’t prevent a parent’s worst nightmare from happening: that night, he accidentally backed over his two-year-old son Cameron had crawled beneath the vehicle. He was a caring father and a driven, moral man working hard to build his medical practice and help families. The Oyster Bay, Long Island pediatrician was sober and drove slowly that night, checking both his side and rear-view mirrors before backing up. Shortly after 9:30 on an October night in 2002, Long Island pediatrician Greg Gulbransen backed up his car as he tried to park outside his condo.
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