You've just started the car and you're ready to hit the road. But unless you're paying close attention, you never know who or what could be behind you, like people walking by in the parking lot with their faces buried in their phones. Or kids playing ball in the streets.
"There's a lot of accidents that are slow speed backing accidents," Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth said.
Wriggelsworth says they might become more common in the spring time, because as the weather gets nicer, more kids are outside and more people are driving. He says the best way to avoid hitting somebody as you back up... Is to avoid backing up altogether.
"Always pull forward, so you don't have to back out of your spot,” Wriggelsworth said. “You can just pull forward, you've got a better view."
But if that's not an option the sheriff says one of the safest things you can do when you're backing up is looking out your back window. Because you can't always rely on your mirrors. Or fancy sensors.
"People just solely focus on that backup camera, but you've got to remember that's not an all-encompassing view of what's behind your car or what potentially could be," Wriggelsworth said.
He says to be aware of your surroundings as you're walking to your car. And when you're in it, you might even want to step out and walk around it, because cars have blind spots, and there could be something there.
"You just never see them because the camera doesn't pick them up, they're so small you can't see them out of your back window. Take that extra 10 seconds it takes to walk around your car to make sure it's clear to back up," Wriggelsworth said.
