Plunket Newsletter Spring 2013 | Page 7

Safe y Review By Ruth Nelson Footpath and Driveway Safety It’s spring and that means we are getting outside and more active: mum’s and carers with prams, toddlers and littlies with trikes, scooters and bikes. It’s a good time for a healthy reminder about driveway safety both on your own property and also out and about on the footpaths. In the Pt Chevalier November 2012 newsletter we updated our community on the rising incidences of cars exiting driveways with some very scary near misses and in some cases hitting prams. So please be vigilant when out ‘hitting the pavements’ and teach your kids to be watchful. Mum’s use your ears and your eyes so be careful about walking or running with your headphones on too. In Auckland City area we have high density housing and lots of “sneaky driveways” so teach your kids about listening out for cars and watching for cars coming out of long driveways, especially those with zero visibility for the driver and from the footpath. We have lots of the stickers above available at your local Plunket clinics to put on your rubbish bins so we can use these as viral advertising reminders each rubbish day. SafeKids. Go to www. Safe Kids g.nz for the or used n Education Kit Pedestria s, on rs in school by teache safety related all pedestrian you can also ssages which me ur toddlers to educate yo use ers d pre-school an As a side note, I got caught picking up rubbish off the pavement the other day by a friendly Auckland City Council person and got a toot and a thank-you. So if you are out with your pram, take a couple of shopping bags and pickup some rubbish off the footpath as you go to “Be a tidy kiwi”. RE E THE KIDS A K N OW W H E R C AR TING IN THE B E FO R E G E T CHECK for children before driving off SUPERVISE children around vehicles - always SEPARATE THERE’S NO GOING www.safekids.org.nz John Campbell play areas from driveways