Cockburn family campaigning to save our kids from driveway accidents
GEORGINA Cockburn was 15-months-old when she was killed by a trailer reversing into the garage adjoining her family's newly built home.
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IT is a moment's lapse in concentration that can cause a lifetime of heartache. Too often we hear of children losing their lives in driveway accidents.
The Daily Telegraph launches Check, See, Turn the Key, a safety campaign designed to reduce these tragic deaths and injuries.
Click here to pledge your support and join our campaign by signing your name
Driveway fatalities are believed to be second only to backyard pool drownings for childhood deaths. Experts say as many as three children a week are hit in low-speed run-over accidents, with at least four of them killed in any year.
From July 2003 to the end of last year 43 children - most between two and five - were admitted to the Sydney Children's Hospital after being hit by a vehicle in a driveway.
The full extent of driveway-related incidents, injuries and deaths in Australia is buried because statistics are not collated centrally, although experts are now lobbying for separate records to be kept.
Georgina Cockburn was 15 months old and barely walking when she was run over and killed by a trailer being reversed into her family's garage by her father.
Peter Cockburn recalls that he felt a slight bump on the trailer and stopped, fearing the worst.
The builder and his school teacher wife Emma desperately tried to revive their little girl before paramedics took over, but she could not be saved.
Ten months on they still have no idea how their daughter, the youngest of four girls, got into the garage from the living area.
"She crawled out there . . . we don't know how the door was left open and it was easy access for any toddler," Mrs Cockburn said.
Tragedies like this can crush the most solid of marriages -- but the Cockburns made a pact there would be no blame or recriminations.
Determined that some good would come from Georgina's death, the Riverina couple have joined The Daily Telegraph's campaign and are lobbying for changes.
Click here to pledge your support and join our campaign by signing your name
The Wiggles, Judith Durham of The Seekers and politicians including NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay also back the campaign.
Blue Wiggle Anthony Field said there were important steps all drivers needed to take before getting behind the wheel.
"Always look before you drive out of your driveway. Even driving the big red car, we have to be alert at all times and look to make sure no one is in a dangerous position," he said.
M S Durham, whose song Georgy Girl has special significance to the Cockburns, added: "I'm honoured that I can, in some way, give weight to Peter and Emma's campaign.
"Their tragedy shows how easily such awful things can happen."
Experts at the NSW Centre for Road Safety said changing people's behaviour and attitudes is at the heart of driveway safety.
"It's really about active adult supervision -- holding children's hands when there is a moving vehicle, or putting them in the car with you when moving it," said acting principal manager for safer people Evan Walker.
The Cockburns admit they asked themselves some hard questions as they tried to cope with their grief.
When the family built their dream home in Young they designed the house for safety, ensuring the indoor play area was at the opposite end of the house from the garage, the outdoor play area was separate and fenced and the shed was some distance from the house.
"In all our planning and preparation . . . we did not consider the height of the door handle of the internal access door to the garage, or a self-closer -- systems to stop the garage door opening if there is movement inside, or reversing cameras," Mr Cockburn said.
His wife added: "Two hours' labour and a couple of hundred dollars later and we'd still have our little girl -- it's as simple as that.
"Why weren't we doing this in the first place?"
The Cockburns have lodged an application with the Australian Building Codes Board to get higher door handles on home internal doors accessing garages mandated for all new houses.
"Rear vision cameras alone will not solve this problem, changing garage doors alone will not solve this problem, just being there and supervising your kids will not solve this problem. We need it all," Mrs Cockburn said.
"Everyone has a mindset about swimming pools now, and the danger to toddlers.
"We need to get people thinking about their driveways and garages in the same way."
