Cars still killing our little kids

Two-year-old Joseph Barrett died after being run over in his driveway. Photo / Supplied

Child pedestrian deaths are on the decline - but authorities say more can be done to save our youngsters on roads and driveways.

New figures compiled by Safekids, a subsidiary of Starship Children's Hospital, show the average annual number of deaths has fallen from 14 to eight while hospitalisations also dropped dramatically, from 243 to 107.

Safekids released the figures after analysing incidents between 2002 and 2006. The previous statistics covered the period from 1998-2002.

The new report shows a disproportionate number of deaths and injuries occur at the end of the school day.

Safekids director Ann Weaver said there was still work to do, particularly in areas with lots of Maori and Pacific Island children.

She said such areas might be low-income, where children were likely to walk to school.

The latest figures showed almost half of those killed were Maori, up from a third in the previous study.

Driveway incidents remained a significant cause and reducing that would be "a hard one".

The figures showed 2-year-olds were most likely to be killed or injured on drives.

Weaver said cutting out child pedestrian deaths would require a "multi-agency approach" by councils, police, schools and other authorities.

National road policing manager Superintendent Paula Rose said there was "a long way to go".

She said the introduction of 30km/h and 40km/h zones around schools in the past five years had saved lives.

Rose also credited changes in road design and lower tolerance by police for speeding around schools.

Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Iain Taylor said "parents picking up their little darlings" caused "absolute mayhem at the school gate".

He said safety started with education in the home.

Safekids will start a campaign in July aiming to reduce the driveway death toll.

"Our message for driveways is to check for children before taking off," said Weaver.

SAFETY ROUTINES FAILED

Richard Barrett knows first-hand the pain and tragedy of losing a child.

Last November he crushed his 2-year-old son Joseph while reversing down the driveway of their Gisborne home. Joseph was airlifted to Starship in Auckland but later died.

Richard said he and his wife had rules for when they backed out of the drive, but they didn't work on that occasion. He urged other parents to take more care so they could be spared the grief his family continued to endure.

"For some reason the perfect storm came together and all these protocols didn't work for that split second. Things failed."

Richard said he, his wife Stacey and their other son Lewis, 3, were still struggling.

"The pain as a parent is there all the time. It's hard to deal with.

"It's hard to look at his photograph because it's too painful. It's too much."