Sonoma County has lost 4 young children this week due to automobile accidents where the children could not escape and rescuers could not save the children in time. Two separate freak accidents occurred within a week of each other where the mothers lost control of the vehicle rolled over and went into the Russian River near Jenner and the Petaluma River in Petaluma. Tragically, two sisters in each vehicle could not be saved.
According to recent research published this year in Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, vehicle submersions are estimated to cause about 400 fatalities in North America annually, 63 percent of vehicle drowning fatalities involved a rollover. Please require automakers to add submersion-triggered inflatable roof systems to provide more buoyancy time for rescue.