We know that cars and young children are a potentially fatal combination. Too many young children, often toddlers, are run over in the driveway of their home every week in Australia, often by someone who loves them.
The vehicle is usually reversing slowly and is often being driven by a relative or friend. Many children are killed and many that survive are left with severe long-term injuries.
Children are naturally inquisitive and want to see what's going on. In the time it takes for a driver to say goodbye and start the car, a child can move from a 'safe' position into the vehicle's path. Small children can be impossible to see from inside a car especially if they are immediately behind it. Young children are also at risk whenever cars or other vehicles could be about ... including off road areas such as car parks, footpaths, private roads, caravan parks , farms, unfenced front yards and play areas.
Following concerns from the NSW Parliament's Child Death review Team, the Motor Accidents Authority, with key agencies including the Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program, worked together to reduce the incidence of these tragedies with a multi faceted approach including improving behaviour, modifying the driveway environment and advocating safety changes for motor vehicles.
NRMA Insurance now considers reversing visibility as part of a standard range of tests when assessing new car performance. Results to date indicate that even the best vehicle has a blind area around 3 metres that could easily hide a child. See nrma.com.au/reversing for information on how cars have performed.
The Kids and Traffic team works collaboratively with children's services across NSW, with local councils including Road Safety Officers and other community organisations to build partnerships with families and local communities around road safety education. The Program provides children's services with ongoing continuing support for the development and evaluation of road safety policies that are responsive to their local contexts. These policies include safe practices and procedures to ensure daily arrivals and departures are safe for children, families and staff. Early Childhood Educators are ideally placed to share road safety information with families to help prevent child deaths and injuries and to raise awareness of the importance of driveway safety.
In the year 2000 and in partnership with the Motor Accidents Authority, the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority and the City of Ryde, the Kids and Traffic, Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program, developed an interactive driveway safety display kit which highlights the difficulty drivers have in seeing small children behind reversing vehicles. NSW children's services can borrow the kit free of charge. It is designed to help raise family and community awareness of the dangers to children of moving vehicles, particularly in driveways.
Young children are at risk whenever cars or other vehicles could be about ... including off road areas such as car parks, footpaths, driveways, private roads, caravan parks , farms, unfenced front yards and play areas. Traffic related injury is one of the leading causes of death and serious injury for young children.
Early Childhood Educators are ideally placed to share road safety information with families, to help prevent these tragic child deaths and injuries. We also have a duty of care to do all we can make daily arrivals and departures safe for children and families.
Four plywood statues (average height of an 18month old child)
Laminated driveway safety posters & fact sheets developed by the Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program
"Where are your Kids? Child safety in your driveway" Motor Accidents Authority brochure
A measuring tape, bluetack and chalk
A Kids and Traffic Gazette about off road injury to young children
A driveway safety display survey to use with participants
