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US brakes reversing deaths law

NEW YORK - US legislation intended to help prevent children being run over by reversing vehicles has been delayed until the end of 2012.

The US transportation secretary Ray LaHood said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration needed more time for "research and data analysis".

The agency proposed in 2010 that automakers include a rear video camera transmitting images to the drivers be mandatory by the 2014 model year.

TECH ALREADY IN USE

Nearly 300 people are killed and 18 000 injured each year in the US because of reversing accidents, NHTSA data says. Many incidents occur in home driveways and car parks and nearly half the deaths involve children younger than five. The elderly also are frequent victims.

Lobbyists for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry trade association, met White House officials in December, 2011, to discuss the proposed rules.

They urged the administration to allow automakers the option of including expanded mirrors on vehicles rather than cameras, saying the estimated cost to the industry of cameras would be about $2.7-billion (R20 billion) a year.

The alliance's Gloria Bergquist noted that such cameras were already standard in many vehicle models or offered as options for which car buyers pay extra.

Under a 2008 law, the US government was required to issue final rules to address reversing accidents by February 28, 2011. LaHood has extended that deadline twice already.
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