As long as we're talking about removing safety devices, why don't you tear out your seatbelts, remove your airbags, stability control and power steering, and go back to drum brakes instead of fancy safe disc brakes... you'll save plenty of space and weight without those silly safety features.
In your dad's and grandfather's time, there were plenty of people backing up over children (as well as a million other things) - it sounds like you're stating this is only a recent occurrence that can be overcome if we just pay attention.
I absolutely love, and depend, on my rear camera when backing out. I have a great view from my dash and can see cars/obstacles from the left and right side simultaneously without having to ignore one for the other.
If you love and depend on your camera, I have no qualms about it. I am not arguing that the drivers of the current herd of gigantic trucks and SUV's not be allowed to purchase back up cameras. If I drove a large pick up that is difficult to see behind, I would consider purchasing one.
However I drive a tiny little roadster that is lower that a kid on a bicycle. A back up camera is in no way useful for this car and does not enhance the safety of it at all.
Your analogy of seat belts or drum brakes is a poor one. Seat belts do enhance the safety of every vehicle on the road, and seem to be a reasonable mandate. Disk brakes do offer obvious advantages over drum brakes. I can not help but point out that disk brakes are not mandatory, but the market does support them because of their benefits. Mandatory back up cameras on the other hand do not offer any increase in safety in a vehicle of my car's size. Instead they will add cost and complexity to cars for no real return. To suggest otherwise baffles me, and causes me to assume that people today are incapable of performing the most trivial of tasks such as looking behind them.
When you say you depend on your back up camera, I am happy that you have it. I know many of the huge SUV's and pickups that drive today need this equipment. Never have I said that you should not be allowed to purchase it. I do think that it is unreasonable to force small car buyers to have to pay for these systems when they offer little to no benefit.
Would you support a law that would force every vehicle to have a similar stopping distance and slalom speed of my Elise? This would undoubtedly save lives on the highway if vehicles could all stop and maneuver with the finesse of a lightweight mid engine sports car. Yes there would be costs involved, but why not think of the children? If just one child's life was saved because their parents were forced to install high quality Brembro brakes and race quality tires on their family sedan I'm sure that we would all sleep better at night. I suppose that there would be some inconvenience if everyone was forced to drive in small light weight mid engine cars. But Lotus does make a 2+2 Evora, and of course there is always the 911. If just one child's life was saved because their family avoided an fatal roll over while trying to maneuver would it not be worth it? Do you think it is reasonable to mandate that everyone drive a Lotus or Porsche because of their enhanced driving capabilities? As a compromise I think that large families might be able to purchase a Maserati sedan instead of a little Elise. An added benefit is that it is much easier to see out the back of these little cars, to prevent accidentally smunching a child on a bicycle. I will not ask you to imagine if you were involved in a crash and your child died because you do not drive with ceramic brakes and r compound Yokohoma 048's or similar quality tires on your car, but if you do not at least have a Winwood big bake kit and Michelin pilots on your car, I expect you to go out and buy them TODAY!
I wish you had the same consideration and did not favor forcing others to purchase useless equipment that they do not want in a poorly conceived "one size fits all" law.
I have not ripped out the seat belts, airbags, or disk brakes from my car. I did peal off the crazy stickers on my sun visors warning me that my children should be put in the back seat of my car for safety reasons. Considering that my car does not have back seats, I do not this that this is unreasonable. I will not force any child to sit in the engine compartment of my car, which was what these stickers seem to imply that I need to do.
I do think that mandating that tiny subcompact cars have to be fitted with back up cameras is, like the stickers I mentioned, stupid. It annoys me when I hear that my government is forcing me to do stupid things. It does not surprise me that this is the case, but it does annoy me.
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