FOUR-wheel drives, trucks and large utes are a common factor in incidents of children being killed and injured in driveways, a state coroner has found.
Coroner John Olle last week said there was a need to raise awareness of safe access and exits to households.
A summary inquest into the deaths of 14 children in driveways in Victoria since 2000 heard another 73 children were admitted to hospital with non-fatal injuries between January 2000 and December 2010.
An investigation by the coroner’s prevention unit found a third of the deaths occurred on a shared driveway. In more than half the cases, drivers were reversing.
Mr Olle’s investigation centred on three cases, including the death of a Hillside boy, aged 2½, in February 2011.
The court heard the boy was hit by the front wheel of a 4WD driven by his father at their Hillside home.
The boy had walked into the path of the vehicle near the garage while his grandmother was tying the shoelaces of his seven-year-old brother.
Mr Olle said the three cases had been the catalyst for a driveway safety campaign, the main message of which was “just because you can’t see me, doesn’t mean I’m not here”.
The coroner will hand down his findings at a later date.
