Kidsafe

Melbourne Tuesday October 25th: National Kidsafe Day is being used to launch a statewide campaign focused on the prevention of Toddler Driveway Deaths.

On average, these result in one child fatality a month and according to the latest figures out of Queensland, injure as many as 3 children a week.

Kidsafe will also be providing the following three National Kidsafe Day Road Safety awards:

The Victorian Minister for Children, The Hon Wendy Lovell, will officially present the three awards and launch the Kidsafe driveway campaign, backed by the TAC Community Grants Program and Holden, at Federation Square at lunchtime today, with a graphic illustration of the lack of vision behind vehicles.

Melanie Barbera and her 18 month old daughter Sierra, who was run over in the home driveway last year and survived, will join the Minister to promote the driveway safety message by placing the first of 95,000 vehicle safety stickers to be distributed across the country, on the driver's side window, to remind drivers to be aware of the dangers.

Robert Caulfield, Vice President of Kidsafe, cautioned: "Parents need to recognise that children are unpredictable, and that driveways are one of the deadliest areas around the home. These children are usually old enough to be mobile, but too small to be easily visible from the driving position."

Research from the Coroners Prevention Unit has shown that most incidents occur at or near the child's home, where both the parent and the child may have felt that the child was safe. Importantly, in almost all driveway run-over incidents, the driver was unaware that the child was even in the vicinity of the vehicle.