28 July, 2005
Media statement
For immediate use
Kudos to State Insurance for Child Awareness
Every Child Counts congratulates State Insurance for testing cars to establish their driveway reversing safety. State
have established a scale from 0 to 5 based on the area that is invisible to drivers when they are reversing their car,
and ranked different models of cars accordingly.
“The place of their vehicles on the list should be an incentive to manufacturers to improve design to reduce the risk to
small children of being run over,” says Dr Ian Hassall, Every Child Counts spokesperson. “Publicity may also be expected
to remind parents of the need for vigilance, if they needed reminding.”
“Pending redesign of the family car, the surest safety measure, not so reliant on the vagaries of supervision, is likely
to be a home and section design that has a free-go outdoor area for children that is separate from the driveway,” he
concludes.
Every Child Counts is a coalition including Barnardos, Plunket, Save the Children, Unicef NZ and AUT’s Institute of
Public Policy, supported by more than 325 other organisations and thousands of individual supporters. The public are
invited to demonstrate their support for the nation’s children by adding their names to the Every Child Counts campaign
at www.everychildcounts.org.nz.
ENDS