[HardDrive]

Frankly, I think they should be mandated for SUVs and trucks. Stories of people backing over children who are hiding behind their truck are not at all uncommon. They're not a substitute for looking around, but good to know what's directly behind you.

Slightly off topic story, but I'm telling it anyway. Many years ago, an acquaintance of mine was a truck driver, and he regularly drove in Detroit. He drove an semi. One summers day, he is sitting at a stop light, when suddenly the people in the car next to him started screaming at him and honking their horn, and telling him 'DON'T MOVE!'. This being Detroit, he wasn't sure what was going on. He put his window down a bit, and a woman yelled that there were children under his truck. Convinced he wasn't being robbed, he got out to find that indeed, some children who were playing hide and seek had gotten under his tractor as a hiding place! One of the kids had wedged himself between the drive wheels. He said he wasn't even fully out of the truck before the light had turned green. The kids, needless to say, would have been killed if he had moved.