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Syosset father of killed tot testifies for car safety

BY LOUISE RADNOFSKY | louise.radnofsky@newsday.com

March 1, 2007

Cameron Gulbransen, who died in an accident in October 2002. (Handout)

WASHINGTON - Syosset pediatrician Greg Gulbransen made his fifth trip to Capitol Hill Wednesday, testifying at a Senate subcommittee hearing in support of a car safety bill named for his 2-year-old son, Cameron, whom he accidentally killed while backing his sport utility vehicle into the family driveway.

Gulbransen told legislators of the evening in October 2002 when he backed into the driveway and suddenly felt his wheel go over a bump.

"I knew I couldn't have hit the curb," he said. "I jumped out and there in the headlights was my 2-year-old son Cameron in his baby blue pajamas holding his blanket, faceup, dying of a massive head injury."

Gulbransen continued, "I never had a chance of seeing Cameron because he was too small. Too small for the large blind zones that are built into the design of our vehicles."

The advocacy group Consumers Union said the blind zones of SUVs they tested ranged from 9 feet to 69 feet.

To try to prevent similar accidents, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), with Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), introduced the Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act on Tuesday.

The legislation would require the transportation secretary to issue new safety standards on rear visibility, power windows and vehicle service brakes, and to collect more data on "nontraffic" car accidents like the Gulbransens'. Advocates say cameras are the best way to prevent such accidents.

The bill was introduced in the House in the 108th Congress, and in both the House and Senate in 2005. It was approved by a Senate committee and sent to the chamber in the waning hours of the 109th Congress, where an unknown senator placed a "secret hold" on it.

Campaigners hope that the reintroduction of the bill early in this new Congress will increase its chances of getting enough support to pass.

David McCurdy of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said in testimony yesterday that he sympathized with the families but that cameras "are not effective in every single situation."

At a news conference Tuesday, Clinton highlighted the deaths of 21 children in New York State since 1990 from non-traffic car accidents.

She was joined by Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who introduced an identical bill in the House with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) the same day.

Clinton said, "None of us wants to -- as we each have done -- meet with another family who has lost a child in what is clearly a preventable death."

Sue Auriemma, of Manhasset, said at the news conference that she had injured her 3-year-old daughter in a similar fashion when the girl ran into the driveway. Auriemma said she had checked around her SUV before she got in it in May 2005. Looking over her shoulder from the driver's seat, she did not see Kate run into the driveway.

Auriemma stopped when she heard her daughter's screams, and Kate survived the accident.

"Not a day goes by when I do not think what could have happened," Auriemma said.

Another Long Island child, Robert Palange Jr., of North Bellport, was run over in his driveway in 2005 at age 21/2. His parents did not attend the hearing, but his mother, Kim Polly Palange, said in an interview, "I think it's great what they're trying to do. ... For as much as you can pay for a car nowadays, wouldn't it be simple to make these devices mandatory?"

Staff writer Zachary R. Dowdy contributed to this story.