Common Sense More Important Than Cameras

Common Sense More Important Than Cameras in Curbing Driveway Deaths

Life-size child figurines help spread safety message

Simple, straightforward procedures have a more important role to play than cameras in reducing the death and injury toll of children caught in driveway accidents, according to the Child Safety Foundation of New Zealand.

"A series of tragic incidents over the last few weeks has underlined the urgent need to do all we can to prevent our children being killed or injured on driveways," says the Foundation's Executive Officer, Berenice Langson.

"Installing reversing cameras on a vehicle can certainly be a positive move.However, at an estimated cost of between $300 and $950, cameras will be beyond the financial reach of many families. Moreover, as fixed devices, they have only a limited ability to monitor the swift movements of children at play.

"Whether or not you have cameras installed on your vehicles, there are some simple, cost-effective and very straightforward steps that every family with children can and must take to prevent driveway accidents occurring.

"The most obvious of these is to look and ensure there are no children around and likely to be in your path, before you actually get into your car and start reversing. This rule applies, of course, to people visiting a home with children, as well as to the parents themselves. For all drivers, it's a matter of checking and then checking again," she says.

"It's equally important for parents to ensure their children are supervised.That includes making sure you know where the children are and not assuming someone else in the family is looking after them, when, in fact, they've been left untended. Similarly, it's vital to hold onto your child when saying good bye to visitors.

"In addition, it's essential to separate play areas from your driveway.Ideally,that means fencing the driveway off. Even if fencing-off is not possible, you need to make sure that your children never, ever use the driveway as playground," Berenice Langson adds.

Recent accidents include the death of a Wairoa two- year-old on March 22nd, when a family friend reversed a car out of a driveway. On April 3rd, a 17-month-old Hamilton girl was partially crushed by a reversing vehicle, whilst another Hamilton child received serious injuries two days later, when the eight-year-old was using the driveway to play hide-and-seek.

The Child Safety Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to minimise preventable accidents occurring to New Zealand's children.

The Foundation has developed kits, with life-sized, plastic child figurines, for demonstrating the dangers involved in reversing out of driveways. Used extensively by community organisations, schools and parents' group, the kits have drawn shocked responses from people seated inside a vehicle at how little they could see of the plastic children.

Made of durable materials and intended to last for at least five years, kits are purchasable from the Child Safety Foundation of New Zealand for approximately $2,000 each.

"We believe that every community in New Zealand should have access to one of our kits. They are saving lives, by demonstrating just how difficult it can be to see children from the driving seat," says Ms Langson, adding that it's impossible to put a price on children's lives.

ENDS

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