A new campaign urging drivers to be extra vigilant when reversing in and out of driveways when young children were around has been launched by the Road Safety Commission.
Titled If You Don’t Know, Don’t Go, the campaign is aimed at highlighting the danger of unsupervised children who might be playing in driveways.
Originally developed by KidSafe SA, the campaign has been released in conjunction with KidSafe WA.
Road Safety Commissioner, Adrian Warner said that tragically across Australia, one child every week was run over by a car in a driveway.
“We need to make drivers aware of that tragic statistic over this very busy summer holiday period,” Mr Warner said.
“National data also reveals that the children who are involved in these accidents are often of toddler age, with the cars usually driven by family or friends.”
He said children around the toddler age were naturally inquisitive — “they move fast and they can be hard to see behind a vehicle”.
“In our own driveways, where we are very familiar, we just get in the car without even thinking about it but this is the time to be extra careful,” Mr Warner said.
“The message is clear — if you don’t know, don’t go,” he said.
