AAA Warns Drivers of Parking Lot Dangers

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- ‘Tis the season to be aware and alert.

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, parking lots are packed with shoppers and its easy to become a victim. AAA Auto Club Spokesperson, Kimberly Schwind sheds light on this growing issue.

“Driver training experts say that the best way and safest way to park is by actually by backing into a parking,” said Schwind. “So 76% of people are pulling into a parking space instead backing into a parking space. Which actually are putting pedestrians and other traffic in the parking lot at risk. So what happens is when you pull into a parking space, then you eventually have to back out into the line of traffic where the pedestrians are walking. And there is traffic going back and forth so you have to be extra, extra cautious.”

Schwind said every year an average of 292 people are killed and more than 18,000 are injured in back up accidents.

“Auto manufactures are starting to put features on their vehicles like back up camera and alerts. To try to help you and keep you safer when your backing up. But if your car has one of these features you need to be aware that they are not foolproof. You still need to know your surroundings. And you still need to use your mirrors. Recently AAA study actually found that if you have an alert that’s supposed to let you know if someone is going behind your vehicle, it does really work all the time especially when you’re parked behind two lager vehicles. So what the survey found that it failed to detect pedestrians 60% of the time,” said Schwind.

Schwind said the key items to remember when driving are to always be aware, alert, and cautious.