Driveway fatalities reached 6 last year

A child is taken to hospital every two weeks and four are killed each year after being run over in driveways, child safety campaigners say.

However, six children were killed last year, two in December.

Safekids director Ann Weaver said Christmas and the holiday period was a time when the most deaths happened.

"This is certainly the season for driveway deaths," Ms Weaver said.

She said more children played outside at this time because of the warmer weather and adults were more likely to be inattentive during the busy period.

"It's the worst kind of incident that can happen to a family when someone close to the family kills or injures a child. We have to look at it as a bigger issue of making everyone aware that these situations happen," Ms Weaver said.

"We have to learn and take note of the ways to prevent them."

Motorists needed to be made aware that vehicles have a 2m visibility "black spot" at their rear, putting toddlers especially at risk.

Glancing in the rear-view mirror after getting behind the wheel was an insufficient safety check because "if you place a toddler behind a car, you can't see them".

Some new cars had an inbuilt camera displaying the view from the rear of the vehicle on a dashboard screen, but not everyone could afford that.

"It is about being very cautious about reversing out of a driveway."

Ms Weaver said people should also fence off a play area for young children that does not allow them access to the driveway.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of driveway deaths in the world.

Ms Weaver said New Zealanders typically have larger sections than other countries, making long driveways more common.

The death of 3-year-old Blenheim toddler Jason Baxter-Schroder in January came just a month after a coroner called for closer adult supervision around driveways.

Jason was riding a scooter along a footpath on Graham St in Blenheim when he was struck by a reversing car.

A report published in the New Zealand Medical Journal in 2002 identifies driveway design as a contributing factor to the accidents.

* www.safekids.org.nz