Day 2 of 6 Days of Road Safety: Driveway Safety

We all know that any cheeky monkey under 5 is built for speed, agility and unpredictability. Young children are naturally curious, and as they begin to move around they are unaware of where they are going - often leading them to run behind cars without warning. Most of the fatalities and serious injuries in driveways are reversing accidents which underlines the importance of parents knowing where their children are at all times. Every week in Queensland, three children are run over in low speed accidents – many of which are in a driveway. Every year about 7 children aged 0-14 years are killed in Australia from low-speed runovers: 60 are seriously injured due to driveway run over incidents The majority of driveway run overs occur in the driveway of the child’s own home, or in a friend or relative’s driveway and, sadly, the driver is often Mum or Dad or a person known to the child. In 85% of cases, the driver does not know that a child is close to the vehicle; they think they are being looked after elsewhere. Kidsafe in conjunction with researcher Bron Griffin measured a blind spot distance of 15metres behind a Holden Commodore. So a toddler sitting 14 metres behind could not be seen by the driver. Top 5 Tips for today Here are our Top 5 Tips for today to make your driveway safe. Use these strategies IN COMBINATION to reduce the risk for run over incidents. Each step makes a Kidsafe home with you a #Kidsafemum 1.  Supervise - Know where the children are. If home alone and need to move the car either have the children all appropriately restrained in the vehicle when moving or, if another adult is around, make sure they have all the children safely secured in the house or well away from the vehicle. Physically hold them. 2. Separate - the play areas from driveways. Driveways are not play areas. Some design features that may assist in this include: high handles on garage doors, self-closing doors and fences between the driveway and front lawn - consider using pool gates as side fence gates! 3. See - A good habit is to walk around the vehicle to check no one is quietly hiding behind the vehicle. Install cameras and/or sensors. A combination of sensors AND a camera can offer better sense of what is behind the vehicle but alone will not prevent runovers. 4. Teach your children that driveways are like roads – stop, look, listen and think at every driveway they cross when walking on the footpath. 5. Remember – don’t move the car if you don’t know where the kids are! Win a Kidsafe First Aid Kit. To enter today’s competition tell us how you keep your driveway safe? Email your answer as well as your name, address, email and phone to qld@kidsafeqld.com.au This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or post a comment with a pic or video on the Kidsafe Qld Facebook  under the relevant post.  Winners will be announced on 11thMay 2015.

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