Did you know that the average driver operates a vehicle in reverse for only about one mile annually, yet statistics show that 25 to 30 percent of all crashes occur while vehicles are backing up?

This information comes from S&ME Engineering of Raleigh, North Carolina. When you consider that the average driver puts on 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year, backing amounts to only about 0.00008 percent of the total mileage, yet accounts for over 25 percent of crashes.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that backing crashes are only fender-benders. According to a study by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, nearly 300 deaths and 18,000 injuries are caused annually in the U.S. by backing crashes. While people of all ages are victims of back-overs, this report confirmed that children under 5 years old and adults 70 and older have an elevated risk of being back-over victims compared to the rest of the population. Back-over fatalities happen in a variety of areas with the most common area being the driveway, closely followed by other residential areas, public roadways and nonresidential parking lots. Back-over injuries tend to happen more frequently in nonresidential parking lots than other areas.

The concept of “First Move Forward” means that you should park in such a way that when you return to your vehicle, your next move is driving forward. For instance, when you choose a parking space in a parking lot with open-ended stalls, choose one that you can pull through and park facing out so that when you return to your car, your first move is forward. If you are unable to pull through a parking space, back into the space whenever possible. In both cases, when you exit, drive forward out of the space. You may have to plan ahead somewhat and it may seem uncomfortable at first, but as you practice this safe driving technique, it will become very easy to implement.

Parking lots are dangerous for several reasons. Drivers just entering them are concentrating on finding a place to park and not paying much attention to other vehicles. Similarly, drivers trying to back out of a parking place are more concerned with not hitting the vehicles parked on both sides, and you have limited vision of cross-traffic behind you until you back into their travel path.

This First Move Forward can even be implemented at home. Traffic safety advocates say it is safer to back into your driveway than to back out of it into a street or highway. In our area, with winter snow banks so high, visibility is obscured as you back out of your driveway. Backing into your driveway can feel uncomfortable, but it is still safer than backing out. We live on Route 11B and have backed into our driveway for at least 35 years.

S&ME Engineering isn’t the only company that has adopted the First Move Forward policy. There are many companies that require it of their employees while driving a company vehicle, including Chevron, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Shell and many other Fortune 500 companies. It has significantly reduced backing accidents within those companies. The First Move Forward Policy generally states that whenever a company vehicle is parked, it should be parked in a manner that upon re-starting the vehicle, drive is the first gear used, not reverse.

So, remember the slogan “First Move Forward” and start practicing it -?you will become a safer driver if you do.

For more articles on traffic law and safety, go to the traffic safety board’s website at www.franklincony.org and click on “Traffic Safety Board” under departments then look for Did You Know articles under “services.”