Death of a playful flowergirl

By BRIDGET CARTER


One of the places Kasa Paunga felt most comfortable was on the driveway at home. There she would dance, sing and play with her friends.

But unlike other cheeky 10-year-olds, Kasa was quiet. So quiet that when her father was about to move his car on Wednesday, he did not know she was there.

He started the car and it lurched forward, pinning Kasa against the wall of her home, fatally injuring her.

Now her father, Tavita Paunga, and her mother Katimeli are preparing for her funeral and mourning the loss of their only child.

Mrs Paunga said little Kasa arrived in New Zealand as a 1-year-old when the family migrated from Tonga.

Since then she had made many friends. The last few weeks of her life had been particularly happy because last weekend she was flowergirl at a relative's wedding.

The day of the accident, Mrs Paunga said she had gone to work and Kasa was at their Boundary Rd home in Manukau with her father. They were planning a trip to her aunty's house.

Sometime before they were about to leave, a relative who was at the house asked her father to shift his car, as he had to go to work.

Mr Paunga's car would not start so he opened the bonnet and used a hammer on the battery. He got back in the car, unaware that Kasa was standing in front of it. The car hit Kasa when it lurched forward, pinning her against the wall.

Safekids New Zealand director Ann Weaver said driveway accidents did not get recorded.

"They fall between the gaps, but the feeling is that they are common and on the increase," she said.

They were particularly distressing because the child was often injured or killed by a close relative.