Should reversing cameras become compulsory?
About a dozen children are killed in Australian driveways each year and hundreds more are severely injured, child safety experts say.
The death and injury rates have remained constant over the past 10 years, concerning advocates who are calling for better driver education and compulsory safety devices such as rear-vision cameras.
Recommendations from bodies such as the Motor Accidents Authority, Kidsafe NSW and the Pedestrian Council of Australia have gone largely ignored.
University of NSW safety expert Ann Williamson, who wrote an analysis of child deaths for the Motor Accidents Authority, said most drivers believed accidents would not happen to them.
"Driveway accidents will continue to happen unless we redesign the way driveways are built and redesign vehicles," Professor Williamson said. "But most people are unaware of how common they are. They don't even think about it or they think it will never happen to them. But of course it does happen and it happens with alarming regularity."
Children under six are the most vulnerable because being small makes them difficult to see.
Former Wallaby Phil Kearns ran over his then 19-month-old daughter, Andie, in the driveway of his Mosman home in 2005. She recovered from her severe injuries and was released from hospital after three weeks.
Many others are not so fortunate, with two children losing their lives in separate driveway accidents in NSW in recent months. A one-year-old Riverstone boy died from severe head injuries after being run over by a reversing car in the driveway of a neighbour's home in June. Only six weeks later, a 23-month-old Bourke girl was crushed to death by a reversing car in a driveway.
Kerry Armstrong, who is researching driveway safety at the Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety, said such deaths and injuries were preventable.
"Our research has found that in most cases the child is killed or injured at home," Dr Armstrong said. "Normally what happens is the child follows the adult out of the house, the adult is unaware the child is there and they start to reverse their car.
"In most cases the driver is a parent or care giver and in most cases the car is a large family-sized car or a four-wheel-drive with poor visibility behind the vehicle."
Some car manufacturers have installed rear-vision cameras to give drivers a clear view of what is behind them but Pedestrian Council chairman Harold Scruby believes the devices should be compulsory.
"We have been begging the Federal Government to mandate reversing cameras on all new cars," he said.
"The Government has mandated electronic stabilising control in cars but it won't mandate reversing cameras. Pedestrians, the most vulnerable of all road users, are at the bottom of the food chain, and children are the most vulnerable of all."
Mr Scruby believes rear-vision cameras would cost about $100 a vehicle if they were fitted on the assembly line.
A spokesman for Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said there were no plans to make rear-vision cameras compulsory.
Kidsafe NSW road safety officer Jeannine Grey said cameras and sensors were no substitute for the close supervision of children near cars.
Parents needed to remind children that driveways were small roads, not play areas, and make them less accessible, she said.
"These accidents are particularly tragic because if the child isn't killed, they can be severely injured and often those injuries are permanent," she said.
"It's a terrible burden of guilt for the driver, and often the driver is a parent, relative or carer."
