Driveway Safety

Protect young children from off road injury - especially in home driveways

Off road injury is most likely to happen to children under 3 years of age - they can easily get into the off road environment but don't yet know that they need to move out of the way of an approaching vehicle. Off road injury occurs on driveways, in car parks, on farms and private roads and involves cars or other vehicles.

Driveway injuries in children account for a significant proportion of paediatric pedestrian motor vehicle injuries & deaths in NSW ². Figures from the New Children's Hospital, Westmead indicate that many of the children who were not killed (from March 1996 to December 1998) sustained severe and lasting physical & brain injuries¹. Parents, family members or friends are usually the drivers when children are injured off road².

Off road injuries often result from everyday incidents: -

• When a child is playing in an unfenced play area or in the street
• When a relative or family friend is driving off or returning home
• When the car is reversing
• When the driver has no idea that a child is behind the vehicle
• When the adult who is supervising the child is unaware that the child has slipped away.

Hold their hands or hold them close - even at home, young children always need an adult to be with them and keep them safe.

¹ NSW Child Death Review Team .(1998-1999). Child Death Review Team Annual Report.
² Holland, A.J., Liang, R.W., Singh, S.J., Schell, D.N., Ross, F.I., & Cass D.T. (2000). Driveway motor vehicle injuries in children. Medical Journal of Australia, 173 (4) 192-5.

Copyright 2005 Macquarie University