Boy run over in driveway discharged from hospital

One witness says children often play in the street outside the Kiwicare Preschool. Photo / Dean Purcell

A child who was knocked down by a car outside a south Auckland kindergarten yesterday has been released from hospital.

The five-year-old suffered head and facial injuries when a car backed over him as the female driver reversed down the drive of the Kiwicare Preschool in Mangere about 5pm.

The boy, who was believed to live next door to the kindergarten, was dragged under the car before people screamed at the driver to stop, the New Zealand Herald reported.

As an ambulance arrived the critically hurt boy was being cradled by his distraught father who pulled him from beneath the car, a witness said.

A Manukau District Health Board spokesperson said the boy was discharged from hospital this morning.

The incident has prompted The Dog & Lemon Guide, the AA, Plunket Society and Consumer New Zealand to call for drivers to use reversing cameras.

Dog & Lemon Guide editor Clive Matthew-Wilson said reversing cameras were the most cost-effective solution to the problem of small children being invisible to reversing mirrors.

AA general manager Mike Noon reiterated this, saying if families were considering upgrading their car, they should choose models with the cameras or parking sensors.

"The problem is simple: the drivers of most modern cars can't see what's directly below the rear window of their vehicles. Parking sensors help: they beep as the driver reverses towards an object, but parking sensors only tell the driver that something is behind him, not what and where.

"We support the use of reversing cameras as the most effective means of preventing driveway reversing accidents," he said.

A recent report by the New Zealand Medical Journal revealed that New Zealand's driveway deaths are the highest in Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation countries.

- NZPA