Low speed runover mortality report

In its Fifth Report to the Minister of Health (2009), the Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee (CYMRC) noted that systems to review non-traffic deaths are inconsistent and less well developed compared with systems to review traffic deaths. As a result, ‘children and young people on farms, off-road in all-terrain vehicles or in driveways may die with no organisation maintaining a systematic overview of the whole picture for this class of death’ (CYMRC 2009:50).

When non-traffic deaths were reviewed to bring into focus common themes and issues, two substantial groups emerged. Since strategies to prevent these two groups are different, they are considered in separate reports. The first group, involving deaths related to vehicles moving at low speed in an off-road setting, is covered in this report. The second, involving deaths related to all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, and farm machines in an off-road setting, will be published by CYMRC in 2012.