Boy hit by car in Manurewa driveway, neighbour describes frantic efforts to save six-year-old

A neighbour has described frantic efforts by strangers to resuscitate a six-year-old boy hit by a car backing out of a South Auckland driveway.

The Coxhead Rd resident said he was sleeping in his house around lunchtime when he heard screaming and yelling.

“I rushed out to see what happened.

“Everyone was saying ‘he’s under the car, under the car’,” he told the Herald.

“The six-year-old boy was being pulled out from under the car when I reached there. Me and one other passerby in his 20s stopped to give the boy CPR because he was hardly breathing.”

The resident said the driver had backed out of the driveway near trees where the boy was understood to have hidden while playing.

“The driver must not have seen him,” he said.

Another resident who rushed out after hearing the commotion said police and ambulances arrived on the scene quickly.

“It was about 400m away from my house. I heard screaming but by the time we went out the police and ambulance were already there and emergency services had blocked that part of the road.”

The boy is now recovering in Starship Hospital and was today in a stable condition.

A police spokesperson said they were alerted to a report of a vehicle collision involving a child about midday yesterday.

The incident happened at a residential address on Coxhead Rd in Manurewa, police said. The Serious Crash Unit attended the scene.

Starship Children's Hospital. Photo / Natalie Slade

An Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter spokesman said the child was struck by a moving vehicle in a driveway.

“He was trapped and the vehicle was lifted off by bystanders.”

St John sent two ambulances to the scene and a rapid response vehicle.

An Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter paramedic and doctor accompanied the boy in an ambulance to Starship Hospital.

He was initially in a critical condition.

A Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand spokesperson said this morning he was now stable.