Deaths in Driveways

[mrapocalypse]

Everyone should be familiar with these stats!
http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/2002/pdf/Driveway_deaths.pdf

[Lotz-A-Landies]

The death of a child from any cause is always a tragedy.

All drivers should be aware of the potential of injury to children even in their own driveway.

However, and understand this Mr Scruby if you are listening (or in fact hearing),
There are: Lies
Damned Lies
and Statistics

Less than a quarter (almost 1/5) of all driveway fatalities involved 4WDs.

The statement of "overrepresented" is a statistic which compares proportions of "new registrations" of different classes of cars in a population to the number of this type of accident/injury. The problem of using new registrations, is that it does not adjust for the life-span of the vehicle and is therefore not an actual reflection of the proportions of cars actually on the road.

Small cars don't last as long as trucks and 4wds before they are crushed, therefore the proportion of small cars:4WD is skewed towards the small car end of the dataset.

Just my opionin.

Diana

[mrapocalypse]

There is a simple answer to all of those statistics, Just be careful everyone. Jimny up to F350! You would never ever get over running a kid down for want of a second look or a spotter.

Whenever we are anywhere that kids might even remotely be - My wife waits until we are out and in the clear before she gets in, just to act as a spotter. It's a simple but effective plan. And has actually saved a life in Kirribilli when a Chinese kid went between the back of our Disco and the car parked behind us. Wife says STOP. Kid lived happily ever after. I didn't see him until he was across the road.

[njz]

Rear view camera's are handy too.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

There is a simple answer to all of those statistics, Just be careful everyone. Jimny up to F350! You would never ever get over running a kid down for want of a second look or a spotter.

Whenever we are anywhere that kids might even remotely be - ....Mr Apocalypse

I can not agree with you more!

Just 2 recent personal events.

Yesterday afternoon I was in a taxi coming from the city approaching a traffic light intersection (Alison Road and Cowper Street at Randwick Racecourse). All of a sudden a soccer ball came rolling across the intersection followed immediately by a little boy no more than 5 years old. I could not believe that on such a road during the busy time of the day every car stopped, with not a single vehicle coming near the child and what could have been a most tragic scene.
At my family home on the farm my parents are building a granny flat to move into so my niece can move into the main house with her family. It's a great idea, 1 property spanning four generations living together (me just on weekends). A great amount of time and effort has been included so that mum's car does not have to reverse in or out of it's carport. Just very sensible planning, but not always possible in todays housing developments.

[tombraider]

Yeah, I run a rear camera... No hiding behind my Disco....

And, no, having the death of ANYONE on your conscience is not a nice thing to have....

[tombraider]

Just very sensible planning, but not always possible in todays housing developments.


Well designed, great idea!!!!!


It's always possible, its just that nowadays people want to live in shoeboxes on top of each other...and wont spend the money to design better setups.

After all if noone purchased those tiny blocks the developers might re think their "pack em in" mentality

You can walk one side of Melbourne to the other now on house roofs and not have to jump :p

The Aussie dream of a 1/4 acre seems dead.... At least I have my 1/4 :angel:

And even better we have a laneway behind the property..... :cool:

[solmanic]

When I did my driving test they used to instruct you to walk around the vehicle before getting in basically to check the vehicle over. If everybody just followed this simple practice I'm sure the number of fatalaties would drop. People would at least be aware of what or who was behind their vehicle before getting in (although it would not necessarily prevent a little one from running behind afterwards).

Where possible, I also try to reverse into parking spaces and driveways - on the driver's side too. This means I can scope out the space beforehand and whilst reversing I have a clear view of where I'm going in the nearside mirror. When I leave, I also have less risk because I always drive off forwards.

Just a couple of little things, but they help avoid other little things.

[graceysdad]

My brother in law has 8 kids and one has prada willie syndrome, he is always crawling about and has on occasion been known to sit behind the cars waving at cars as they go about there biz, I am always scared he will get knocked or even worse get knocked by me so I check under ,behind before I leave his driveway and preferably have one of the older kids take locky away from the cars, it really plays on your nerves, where is he?, the day you ddont get out and check is the day you do something you will regret always. Schools are bad enough, specially with little kids who just run out without looking, 40kph is still to fast for a school zone, 4wds or the family sedan dont discriminate when it comes to running over someone, its a terrible thing no matter how you twist it around, you cant lay blame on any one group of vehicles, too many things come into play. A rear camera is the best investment, all cars should have them as standard fitting.

[vnx205]

".... the relatively high sitting position of the driver in
large 4WDs or commercial vans tended to counteract the high window sills of those vehicles. The
driver’s rearward field of view amongst their limited sample of large 4WDs and empty
commercial vans was better than that in some sedans and worse than that in others."

I thought that was an interesting point. Now I wonder why I have never seen that point reported in the popular media.

The facts about detection devices make me think that (as others have already said) there is no substitute for vigilance. It worries me that some people put too much faith in technology which is not 100% dependable.

[LandyBen]

At work we have to have someone spot us while we reverse, it's part of our reg's. It's also better as they can see if there is going to be any chance of hitting something/someone. At our BFB station, we make all drivers check under the duals for kids before driving out of the shed, as we are quite a family friendly brigade, always kids about. I think most cars should have at least a reversing buzzer, and maybe a camera. I've got a camera on my S3 109, and it's ok, they are fairly cheap these days, around $350.00, including screen, cheap, considering what could happen. Thats my two cents.

[Jeff]

I was actually ran over the other day in a driveway. I was delivering mail and as I rode into the driveway I saw a small sedan reversing at speed towards me, I paddled backwards as fast as I could but he hit my front wheel knocking my bike down. He seemed most surprised but as he had a 6" brick fence I thought he would realise the potential danger. Maybe he does now.

Jeff

:rocket:

[Bushwanderer]

Where possible, I also try to reverse into parking spaces and driveways - on the driver's side too. This means I can scope out the space beforehand and whilst reversing I have a clear view of where I'm going in the nearside mirror. When I leave, I also have less risk because I always drive off forwards.

Just a couple of little things, but they help avoid other little things.

I'm with Solmanic here.

When I first bought my house, my driveway was separated from that of my neighbours by a 5ft fence. Their daughter was 7yo at the time. I decied that the only safe thing to do was to reverse into my driveway. Like Solmanic, I (almost) always reverse into parking spaces.

[ATH]

I'm another that always tries to reverse park but sometimes in shopping centres if you try that some tosser will be in front first before you've selected reverse!
At home I rarely do anything but reverse park as it's much safer entering the road when you can see the local loonies speeding up and down the road towards you.
The cook was almost knocked over when taking the grand kids for a walk one evening when the people just down the road jumped straight into the car, started and into gear and back at a fair rate of knots all without so much as a glance to see if anything/anybody was around.
The police advised her that pathways were a "grey" area in the road rules and all precautions must be taken.
I would have thought 3 people walking past would have been easily spotted by the idiot driving the car but as most don't seem to look until they're at the roads edge (and then it's only a quick glance) that's obviously not enough.
How some of these turkeys get a licence I don't know, how they keep them is obvious when the local law are only interested in speeding offences especially minor offences.
I just hope I never knock a kiddy over but if I do it won't be because I haven't looked.
Alan H.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

....The cook was almost knocked over when taking the grand kids for a walk one evening when the people just down the road jumped straight into the car, started and into gear and back at a fair rate of knots all without so much as a glance to see if anything/anybody was around.
The police advised her that pathways were a "grey" area in the road rules and all precautions must be taken. ...
Alan

I would have thought that a footpath is in no way a grey area, it is the same as a pedestrian crossing. pedestrians have an unambiguous right of way.

The Police were being lazy and just thought it wasn't worth a ticket. Like lots of things, they would have to book the driver for negligent driving which would be contested and they would have to spend a wasted day at court on top of all the paperwork.

Great way to run a legal system. :mad:

Diana

[solmanic]

Like Solmanic, I (almost) always reverse into parking spaces.

It also helps with quick getaways when the in-laws descend.:burnrubber:

[Quiggers]

A guy worked with in the early 1990s is one of the 'perpetrators' of those 'statistics'.

Ran over a neighbours child...

Backing out of the drive (in a Volvo 240 wagon, not a 4wd), on the way to church...early as he was one of those who help at the 'church' and turned up real early...

i'm not joking...

his street in a leafy nth shore of syd syburb was wrecked by this catastrophy...

his street was (were) all 'palsy walsy' until that happened...

he's never been the same since...
wrecked his family, lost his job as he sought solace in the grog (the 'church' were no help),
the victim family next door were catatonic,

ostracised (to and/or by) the rest of the neighbours...

i still wonder why the (then and dead) 4 year old was wandering the streets of wahroonga at 0600 on a dark wintery sunday morning...

yes he was at fault, he reversed a car over a child, he's rooted, she's dead, he's mentally not here anymore, his family went to pieces, her family sued, such a mess......

his kids (all supposed high achievers at numerous activities) had innumerous 'issues' following this, wife departed, house flogged, neighbours moved out....

one small mistake cost maybe 50 people...

i still wonder why that child was where it was....

hmmmm...

GQ

[RonMcGr]

Yeah, I run a rear camera... No hiding behind my Disco....

And, no, having the death of ANYONE on your conscience is not a nice thing to have....

I have two on mine.
Handy for backing up to anything, mainly in my case, a Caravan.

This is what I see from my viewer.
http://memweb.newsguy.com/~mcgrice/cam_0.jpg

When I flick the switch to the lower camera, I see this.
http://memweb.newsguy.com/~mcgrice/cam_1.jpg

Actual view
http://memweb.newsguy.com/~mcgrice/cam_2.jpg

Camera position
http://memweb.newsguy.com/~mcgrice/cam_3.jpg

Side view of cameras.
http://memweb.newsguy.com/~mcgrice/cam_4.jpg

Very easy and cheap to do. Monitor came from Strathfield Car Radios $189.00, cameras from E-bay $95.00 for both.

Cheers

[LandyBen]

Hi Ron, that is a great setup there, very responsible and helpful too with caravans and trailers etc. Good one. I've got a similar set up, as we have a four year old that 'loves daddy's Landy', and is always wanting to get inside. I always wait for the wife to physically hang onto her, whilst I'm reversing out for work. Unfortunately we have a steep uphill drive, and can't reverse in, but as you say, I always reverse park into a car-spot. Take care, Ben.:)

[Phred]

Cameras are great but unless you train yourself to look you won't look at the screen anymore than you will check any other way

[easo]

I reckon that the 130 has the worst rearend blind spot. I can not see a small car 5-7 metres behind me. I get Janelle to hold my little bloke.

[RonMcGr]

Hi Ron, that is a great setup there, very responsible and helpful too with caravans and trailers etc. Good one. I've got a similar set up, as we have a four year old that 'loves daddy's Landy', and is always wanting to get inside. I always wait for the wife to physically hang onto her, whilst I'm reversing out for work. Unfortunately we have a steep uphill drive, and can't reverse in, but as you say, I always reverse park into a car-spot. Take care, Ben.:)

Thanks Ben.
Once you have it, you cannot live without it :D

Cheers