Migrant driver crackdown call

A CORONER has called for tougher driving tests for migrants following the tragic death of a six-year-old boy in a school zone.

A CORONER has called for tougher driving tests for migrants following the tragic death of a six-year-old boy in a school zone.

Coroner Jane Hendtlass today said overseas drivers get licences too easily and should be forced to sit practical tests.

VicRoads is examining the recommendation.

The coronial finding today follows the death of a six-year-old boy run down and killed by a foreign teacher who hit the accelerator instead of the brake and reversed into him as he walked home from school with his mum on the footpath.

Ms Hendtlass found teacher Paraskevi Kafetzis was not skilled or experienced enough to handle the car she was driving in Australia.

The heartbroken father of Constantine Politis today welcomed the call to review rules for overseas drivers.

But Spiro Politis also pleaded for better school parking and traffic laws and higher penalties for unsafe drivers in school zones.

Spiro Politis demanded the State Government bring in mandatory traffic management plans to stop irresponsible motorists turning school zones into death traps.

Constantine was walking home from his prep class at Alphington Grammar School withmother Anna Tsoutsidis and baby brother George when he was hit and pinned against a picket fence in October, 2003. He died minutes later.

"I think there's been a missed opportunity to take things little bit further," Mr Politis said.

"We welcome the coroner's findings both as a way of putting an end to a very traumatic chapter in our lives but also in terms of the recommendations the coroner has made in terms of VicRoads responsibility to ensure that people coming here from overseas actually have to sit practical driving tests.

"We are disappointed the coroner didn't take up our suggestion of following the NSW lead where penalties for driving offences in school zones have recently been increased."

Mrs Kafetzis returned to Greece soon after she was fined a maximum $1200 for careless driving. Her licence was suspended for a year.

A court hearing in 2004 was told her husband, Dimitrios, doubled-parked his car outside the school in Old Heidelberg Rd. The part-time teacher later tried to reverse park the vehicle when disaster struck.

The coroner found Mrs Kafetzis' inexperience with an automatic right-hand drive car influenced her careless driving.

"A practical driving assessment test at this time may have identified and corrected Mrs Kafetzis' inability to park safely ... or depending on her driving assessment, prevented her from continuing to hold a Victorian drivers licence," she said.

Mr Politis today said he had complained about the same car that eventually killed his son constantly double-parking outside the school, but his concerns were brushed off.

He accused his son's school and councils of handballing responsibility for safer roads and footpaths around the school.