Editorial: Turning advice into action

Bay of Plenty coroner Dr Wallace Bain

It happens with a sickening regularity in this country - young children being run over in their own driveways, or those of relatives.

During an inquest in December 2013 into one such Rotorua tragedy, coroner Dr Wallace Bain noted New Zealand had one of the highest recorded rates of child driveway deaths and injuries in the world.

Victims were typically aged 1 to 2 years old and the majority of the drivers involved were a parent or relative of the child.

In his findings from that inquest, he found property design and a need for better driveway design to be one of the contributing factors that led to the "tragic accident".

Coroners make a lot of recommendations, it's their job, and trying to prevent similar occurrences is one of the main reasons for holding inquests, yet they must become frustrated sometimes at a seeming lack of action in implementing them.

So, it's great to see Housing New Zealand taking proactive steps to make 59 of its Rotorua properties safer for the kids living in them.

It's starting by creating fenced play areas for children that are separate from driveways. It's all too easy to bag the Government and its agencies, but in this case credit where credit's due.

The coroner expressed the view that lessons needed to be learned to prevent similar deaths in the future and Housing New Zealand seems to have taken heed of this, by investing $30 million nationwide into the driveway programme.

Prioritising houses where children under 5 were living, it's making a range of improvements to property design to lessen the risk - meaning family members can rest a little easier when driving in and out.

If that can save one child's life then it will be money well spent.