Tot’s death ruled accident

Amoment of miscommunication likely led to a Tauranga couple’s worst nightmare, as their 15-month-old daughter was killed in a driveway accident, the coroner has found.

The girl was tragically killed at a Tauranga property on July 4, 2020, after being run over by a van driven by her father.

The man was not charged, with the police determining the death was an accident with no criminal culpability.

According to the coroner’s findings, the couple recently moved to New Zealand before the accident, with the father working in Tauranga as a tradesman.

The father, wanting to load up his tools in preparation for work, exited the carport on foot, believing he had latched the gate behind him.

The child was in the carport playing with her toys.

The carport was enclosed using an opaque fabric, weighted down by a pipe at the bottom of the panel. This meant the panels were not fully secure and could be pulled to create an opening.

The parents told the coroner, on reflection, there may have been a miscommunication between the couple because it was not their practice to leave the child unattended.

The child had never attempted to leave the carport area before.

The father began moving his work van from the roadside to the driveway. While moving, he felt a bump in the road, initially thinking he had hit an animal. Exiting the car to inspect the damage, he realised he had hit his daughter.

In a moment of shock and anger, the father punched and smashed the rear window of the van, before running inside for his wife.

A motorist stopped to help and another passerby, an off-duty medical technician, administered CPR.

The child was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics minutes after the accident.

An investigation undertaken by Tauranga Police in the aftermath of the incident showed the car had no mechanical faults, and visibility on the day of the accident was fine. The child’s father also had a clean driving record and was not impaired by drugs or alcohol.

It could not be determined exactly where the child escaped from the carport, nor how far she crawled down the driveway.

Police determined there was no criminal culpability in the accident, and the father was not charged.

According to data provided by SafeKids Aotearoa, a partnership between Starship and ACC, five New Zealand children are killed as a result of driveway runovers each year, while more than 20 are injured.

A total of 66 per cent of victims are under the age of 2, while roughly half of all incidents feature one of the child’s parents at the wheel.

Most incidents occur shortly before or after dinner and lunch.

In a statement, a police spokesperson said incidents such as this had a “devastating impact” on the families involved.

The most important steps a driver can take to ensure little ones are kept safe is to ensure children are supervised, the spokesperson said.

The Automobile Association suggested parents of young children should invest in a reversing camera for their car.