PrimeTime: Minivan Danger

May 3 -- Kim Golden was just steps away from her minivan when it began to roll with her 4-year-old daughter, Lindley inside, and in an attempt to bring the van to a halt was run over and killed. Golden was five months pregnant with twins.

And Amy Dawson's 4-year-old daughter was run over by the family minivan in their own driveway.

Dawson says she walked to the mailbox with her two daughters, 4-year-old Abby and 2-year-old Emily, thinking her Dodge Caravan was safely parked. While Dawson was busy with trash bins, Emily went back to the van, and apparently turned the key in the ignition so she could play a CD. The minivan began to roll, running over Abby, who needed 80 stitches to close her wounds.

Though Chrysler's Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager are the most popular minivans in America, a PrimeTime investigation has found such "rollaway" accidents might have been prevented by an inexpensive safety device that was used on all major carmakers' minivans, except for millions made by Chrysler.

Now, going public about this for the first time, Paul Sheridan, a former Chrysler executive, says the company rejected a proposal to install a device that might have prevented many such rollaway accidents.

Brake Shift Interlock

Rollaway accidents can occur when a child, left alone in a vehicle with the key in the ignition turned to the on position — even if the car is not running — moves the gearshift out of park, sending the car rolling.

When the key is in the ignition, a feature called brake shift interlock makes it necessary to put your foot on the brake in order to shift out of park. Since most young children can't reach the brake and shift gears at the same time, the brake shift interlock works as a safety device.

Between 1995 and 2000, 3 million Chrysler Town and Country, Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans were sold — all without the brake shift interlock. So even with your foot off the brake and the engine off, the car could start rolling when shifted into park, as long as the key was in the ignition.