The federal government decided to mandate rear-view cameras on vehicles after revealing that dozens of Canadians have been killed in back-up collisions.
One of those victims was Adrien Gottli, who was struck by a vehicle that was backing out of a driveway as she walked her dog in the neighbourhood of Hawkwood on July 28, 2016. The 56-year-old mother of three died in hospital two weeks later.
“I’m a ship without a rudder right now. All my plans were just with the two of us,” said her husband Laszlo.
Adrien's is just one many lives lost to these types of incidents. According to Transport Canada, 27 people died between 2004 and 2009 while over 1500 more were injured, many of them children. Now Transport Canada is making back-up cameras mandatory as of May 2018. The Alberta Motor Association says the concept is a good one.
“The opportunity here is just to provide an additional layer of information as they back up,” said Scott Wilson, AMA.
But despite his grief, Laszlo isn’t sure the rear-view cameras will help save any lives.
“Unless you educate people to use it, I think it's useless,” he said, adding that the elderly woman who hit his wife had a rear-view camera. He said an audio alert would work better for getting a driver’s attention.
So far in Calgary this year, there have been three people killed in back-up collisions.
