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National | Accident

Native Affairs Summer Series – An Urban Tragedy

What could be worse than driving over your son or daughter? It’s believed that more than 60 per cent of children run over in driveways are run over by a parent, and most of those are dads.

Driveway accidents are also more common now, in the warmer summer months. Aotearoa has one of the highest incidents of child driveway death and injuries in the world, and its Māori and Pacific Island children from lower socio-economic families who are most at risk.

Last year, six children under the age of five died from a driveway run over. All were killed by someone they knew. One of those kids was South Auckland toddler Vaimoana Mafi.  Ruwani Perera tells her father's story.