This article has kindly been supplied by our friends at Plunket...

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of child driveway death and injury in the world. Every two weeks a child is hospitalised with serious injuries resulting from a vehicle driving on a private driveway in New Zealand. A further five children are killed annually, on average, in the same way.

Plunket National Child Safety Advisor Sue Campbell says that although older children are sometimes involved, children who are injured or die in driveways are usually children between the ages of 0 to 4, many are toddlers. “These accidents typically occur when a young child, who was completely unaware of the danger, is driven over by a vehicle moving on their own driveway.  The sad fact is that the vehicles were usually reversing slowly and driven by parent, relative or friend.  In many cases, the driver reported seeing the child in a safe place before the accident.”

Young children have no concept of the danger of reversing vehicles and rely on adults to keep them safe.  The sad reality is that a driver simply can’t see a small child behind their vehicle, the driveway looks clear and they reverse.

The occurrence of these tragic accidents has not changed significantly over the past 15 years but the good news is these deaths and injuries are preventable.  There are a number of things you can do to keep your children safe around driveways. Driveway injury research studies consistently identify three contributing risk factors for driveway injury. These are home and driveway design (vehicles and children sharing the same space), visibility in a vehicle when reversing and ‘human factors’, such as lapses in supervision and driver behaviour.

Home and driveway design
Children are 3 times more at risk of death or injury where the play area is not fenced off from the driveway. The risk is higher for children in homes where driveways are shared.

“We don’t allow children to play in traffic, but allowing them open access to our driveways is just as dangerous,” says Sue. “Driveways are essentially small roads so it’s important to discourage children from thinking of them as a play area and to make it as difficult as possible for children to reach the driveway from the house. A safe play area away from the driveway is the best option.”

Wherever possible, use security doors, fences or child safety gates to keep the driveway out of bounds.

Visibility when reversing
Unfortunately, modern vehicles are not well designed for rear visibility. There is a blind space at the rear of every vehicle which can easily hide a child, especially one less than one metre tall. The blind spot can be as much as 15 metres, which is longer than a car and trailer.

Sue says the rule is to always know where children are when vehicles are around. Know where children are before you or someone else start the vehicle and before driving off.  Make sure you know where all children are – check, check and check again.

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Talking of car safety, Plunket also have some great information on car seat safety and keeping your kids safe in cars. Also check out safekids.org.nz who comprehensively cover car seat recommendations for all ages of children, including the over 5’s. They state, “The Higher You Sit, The Safer the Fit: Adult seat belts don't fit children properly until they're 148cm tall, which is why it's so important for pre-school and school-aged kids to stay in an appropriate child restraint or booster seat.” Food for thought as your baby gets bigger.

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