The premise made all the sense in the world: Turn your car into a school bus which makes a loud noise when it backs up or moves in reverse. It's designed to help alert children and pets that you may not be able to see in your rear view mirror that you are coming. For any parent, it's a dream come true ... but for $9.99, can the Reverse Alarm actually do what it claims and save a life?

We put it to the test at Spitzer Acura located in McMurray. The folks at Spitzer were nice enough to let us use their carport to simulate conditions indoors -- like in a garage -- and then we went outdoors to test it in the elements.

As you witnessed in the story, the reverse alarm actually does work: making a sound when the car backs up. The problem is the level of sound it makes. Indoors, I was able to stand behind the car and hear the beep. However Gail Duchess, who tested the product for us, could not hear the beep going off inside the car which would lead me to believe another driver probably could not hear it either. Outside, while I could hear it as well, I wonder if a child could pick it up given how chidren are often yelling and screaming when they are playing outside.

Given all that, it was difficult for me to rate Reverse Alarm higher than a two on my four scale. Still, if all you want to make some noise when you are backing up .. just in case .. then it might be worth the investment. I guess an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case.