RoSPA highlights need for driveway awareness to reduce the number of child accidents
London, UK (PRWEB UK) 16 August 2013 -- The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents’ campaign to raise awareness of potential injuries to young children who play outside their homes, was launched in November last year. It is in response to the number of children killed on or near their own driveway, which totals 26 since 2001. RoSPA states that 14 of these deaths were caused by a reversing vehicle on the drive.
Another common cause of such tragedies was said to be handbrake failure, which causes a car to roll back and hit a child. With most of the victims aged between 1 and 2 years old, an awareness of the possible presence of a child on the driveway is needed, in addition to increased vigilance on behalf of the driver and the child’s parents.
A spokesperson from the leading child accident claim law firm, the Accident Advice Helpline, had this to say,
“It can be impossible to see a small child when reversing out of a driveway. These accidents are tragic and we welcome any campaign that will raise awareness.”
RoSPA suggests that when parking on an incline, the car should remain in gear with the wheels angled towards the kerb, so that if the handbrake fails the car would be unlikely to roll backwards.
The accident prevention campaigners have added ‘driveway safety’ to their child car seat training courses in order to widen awareness of the problem among other road safety practitioners.
RoSPA Scotland’s Road Safety Officer, Kathleen Braidwood, said,
“I’m pleased that we can raise awareness of driveway safety through our training sessions. Twenty-six children have been killed on, or near, the driveway of their home in Britain since 2001. These cases are not included in road accident statistics, but are nonetheless devastating to those families involved.”
The Accident Advice Helpline deals with thousands of road accident compensation claims every year. If you need to make a child accident claim, call their 24 hour free phone number on 0800 6897 221 to be referred to a specialist claims solicitor.
David Brown, Accident Advice Helpline, http://www.accidentadvicehelpline.co.uk, 0800 6897 221, [email protected]
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