Driveway run-overs expose new danger for kids

For decades, drivers were urged to check for kids before reversing. But, after Victorian deaths spiked, experts discovered a disturbing new blindspot.

Kidsafe Victoria has revealed 41 kids are taken to an emergency department, or killed, after suffering injuries in a low-speed run-over every year on average. Picture: Brad Fleet

A child is seriously injured or killed by a slow-moving vehicle every nine days in Victoria, prompting calls for “urgent action” on driveway deaths.

Kidsafe Victoria has revealed 41 kids are taken to an emergency department, or in the worst cases killed, after suffering injuries in a low-speed run-over every year on average.

Their warning comes as new Coroners Court data reveals fatalities spiked last year, with a heartbreaking six deaths recorded.

And – in a new, disturbing trend – most death in the last decade involved vehicles which were moving forward, as opposed to reversing, at the time of the run-over.

Most recent cases involved vehicles moving forward rather than reversing.

The Coroners Court of Victoria analysed 25 runovers involving kids under 14 between 2012 and 2023, and found more than 70 per cent occurred when the victim was in front, and not behind, the vehicle.

Their review, released today, shows while no one type of vehicle was to blame, with accidents involving sedans, utilities, SUVS and vans, larger vehicles were over-represented.

Regional areas were over-represented, recording almost one in two cases, and most incidents happened when a driver was returning or leaving home, or repositioning their vehicle.

The highest number of deaths were in young children, aged one to five, with the majority under one.

The Coroner released their review into low-speed runovers after investigating the tragic death of two young children in 2023: Baby M and Joseph Hatzaw.

Baby M died in February 2023 after their father, slowly reversing his utility vehicle down his driveway, accidentally struck his daughter.

The Coroner said, while police found no fault with the car, it did not have sensors and the rear vision mirror did not allow drivers to see objects close to the ground.

Joseph Hatzaw, 2, died in September 2023 after he and his younger brother walked out of New Hope Community Centre and into the car park.

CCTV footage showed it took just 65 seconds for the boys to leave the venue, and walk near a temporarily parked Toyota Tarago, which moved forward and fatally struck the toddler.

Victorian Coroner Audrey Jamieson called for a public education campaign on the danger of low speed runovers, and said new design standards mandating reverse sensors, while promising, only applied to ne vehicles.

“It may be some time before all Victorian vehicles have such safety measures,” she said.

She said it was also important that drivers with these technologies do not become complacent and over-rely on them.

Kidsafe Victoria incoming chief executive Sarah Sexton said behind each statistic was a “family whose lives have been irreparably damaged by the trauma and life long grief”.

“These are more than just numbers – they are tragedies that ripple through families and communities,” she said.

Kidsafe said, while hospitalisations have fallen in the last ten years, deaths have not.

Victoria Police’s top road cop Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said attending fatal run-overs involving children and helping their families were “among the most difficult of duties we undertake as police officers”.

“These incidents are preventable, which makes the loss even more poignant,” he said.

Kidsafe is calling for urgent action on the issue, and Ms Sexton said vehicle and property designs, plus human factors, contributed to the tragedies.

The organisation’s new prevention strategy, released on Wednesday, lists key focus areas including developing technology that can be retrofitted to older cars, improving driveway layouts and raising awareness about supervision and blind spots.

Ms Sexton said we needed “collective action” to tackle these “avoidable incidents”.

“We’re calling on the industry – particularly those in vehicle manufacturing who can develop

retrofitted solutions for older vehicles – to help us refine and finalise the strategy and

save lives.”

Originally published as Driveway run-overs expose new danger for kids