FOCUS ON SAFETY VALLEY PAIR DEVELOP CAMERAS TO CLEAR VEHICLES' BLIND SPOTS, PREVENT BACKUP ACCIDENTS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

RESEDA - As the massive SUV backed up, its bumper nearing a kid the driver could not see, Tom Hilborn braced for the worst.

Watching the near-obliteration of a child caught in the sport utility vehicle's blind spot shook the automotive designer as he stood in a grocery store parking lot. Though the child escaped unscathed and the driver headed off unaware, the incident inspired Hilborn and his business partner, Ralph Venegas.

``I've got three kids of my own, so does Ralph. A second one way or another, it could have been a tragedy,'' Hilborn recalled. ``So we started talking about what we could do.''

Normally, Hilborn works out electronics and interior details as the owner of Hilborn Motor Car Accessories. He'd owned a Lincoln Navigator, so he knew firsthand about SUVs' blind spots, as he'd backed over plenty of skateboards, trash cans and bikes. With that in mind, he began kicking around ideas with Venegas on how to improve hindsight.

The idea itself wasn't new, offered by a few manufacturers on large SUVs and luxury sedans as a way to fill in the gap between mirrors behind the hefty vehicles.

Venegas thought he could come up with a better after-market version, testing out prototypes built into the third brake-light assembly on his brother's SUV. The partners then tested it in the driveway of their Reseda Boulevard shop.

``He plays the kid, I try to back up over him,'' Hilborn said. ``Haven't hit him yet, though.''

As Venegas revised the system, which marries a wide-angle night vision camera to a 2.5-inch LCD screen built into the rear view mirror or displayed on an in-dash monitor, Hilborn drummed up customers. He has placed the $520 system on sales floors in 12 states and through his own shop. He and Venegas have spoken to car companies about the possibility of offering it on new cars, but even as an after-market accessory, sales grossed more than $120,000 last year.

Hilborn's shop offers the camera for a variety of Ford SUVs and recently added a model for GM SUVs and trucks. A universal model for all vehicles will be available in the next couple of months.

Insurance and child-safety experts praise backup cameras as a valuable tool in helping prevent these increasingly dangerous kinds of accidents. Kids And Cars, a child safety advocacy group, conservatively estimates 72 children were killed in backup accidents last year, most involving SUVs and pickups.

``When we started doing this five years ago, it was just a little factor,'' said Janette Fennell, founder and president of the group based in Kansas City, Kan. ``Now, it's more than 50 percent of the fatalities. The larger the vehicle, the larger the blind spot.''

In an attempt to raise awareness of the rising number of accidents, the group has lobbied the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to start collecting data both on the accidents and the efficacy of backup cameras.

Even under less tragic circumstances, the accidents can still prove to be extremely costly. Though the Personal Insurance Federation of California has no statistics on the number of accidents, director of communications Jerry Davies praised the cameras as a smart invention. If they prove effective, he said insurers could offer discounts to drivers who install them, given that even slow-speed collisions can cause heavy damage to a smaller vehicle.

``With SUVs in particular, there's been a lot of backup accidents,'' Davies said. ``If they break up the bumper, that's $1,000 or $2,000 worth of damage for a small car.''

Hilborn and Venegas hope to also appeal to drivers' love of gadgetry, figuring that the same driver who craves a built-in DVD player and video-game system will also like a camera to show what their eyes cannot.

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Partners Ralph Venegas, in screen, and Thomas Hilborn check a rear-view camera being offered through their shop.

(2 -- color) This is a camera assembly being sold by Hilborn Motor Car Accessories, aimed at helping prevent backup accidents.

(3 -- color) Partners Ralph Venegas, left, and Thomas Hilborn display one of their rear-view mirrors. The system marries a wide-angle night vision camera to a 2.5-inch LCD screen.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer