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Tips to keep your family safe in the car

There's a lot more to road safety with kids than just driving carefully. Setting yourself and your family with good driving habits will ensure you keep your family as safe as possible.

Tips to keep your family safe in the car

Most mums spend a lot of time in the car ferrying kids backwards and forwards. Here's what you need to know to keep your family safe when you're out and about in the car.

Car safety

Keep your car well-maintained, paying particular attention to safety devices such as brakes and tyres. Regular safety check-ups should include rotating tyres to keep wear equal, and ensure that the wheels are correctly aligned and balanced.

A roadside assistance service can be of particular benefit when you have a young family. If you have a flat tyre or a flat battery, or you happen to accidentally lock yourself out of the car, a roadside assistance service can get you back on the road quickly - particularly when you have kids in the car.

Driveway safety

Driveway accidents are heartbreakingly common, with the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety, Queensland reporting that one child per week is run over in the driveway of their own home. To help your child stay safe, they suggest that you:

  • keep your windows clean
  • make sure the mirrors are clean and positioned correctly
  • never allow children to be unsupervised when someone's reversing - hold their hand or keep them inside.

Ideally, cars should feature functioning proximity sensors and a video camera.

When reversing:

  • ask for assistance where possible
  • check behind your vehicle, and check the reversing path before reversing
  • reverse slowly.

Keeping children safe in the driveway

It's important to teach children about the dangers of driveways, and of cars. It's also our responsibility, as adults, to ensure our children's safety until they're of an age capable of determining speed and its consequences. Children often don't develop road sense until the very end of primary school years, so we need to keep them safe in the meantime. Also:

  • don't allow children to use the driveway as a playzone
  • if you need to move the car, place the child in the car with you while you move it
  • ensure an adult is always supervising any children while a car is being moved.

Getting in and out of the car safely

From the very first day that you bring your baby home from the hospital, get into the habit of getting your child out of the car safely. The safest place for a child restraint in a car is in the centre of the back seat, which means that you have options when taking your child from the car. The safest option is always taking your child out of the car on the footpath side, rather than the road side. Even when you have older children, teach them to scoot along the seat and always alight from the passenger side rather than in the path of on-coming traffic.


Teach children to look out for any pedestrians or cyclists on the footpath before they open the car door and alight too.

Driving with kids safely

First things first - everyone in the car must be strapped in before the car moves. No excuses, no exceptions. It's the driver's responsibility to ensure that everyone is safely secured in the car. As children get older, it's a good idea to have them acknowledge that they're buckled up by saying so once they've clicked in their seatbelt.

When driving, make sure there are no loose objects in the car that could be dangerous for the driver. Toys, drink bottles or balls can become projectiles if they're on the back  parcel shelf of the car and you brake suddenly. Items can also become lodged under the brake pedal if they end up in the front of the car too. Teach children never to throw items in the car, or to store them on the parcel shelf, but to stow them away safely, or hold on to them tightly when driving.

Top safety tips on the road:

  • Ensure your car's childproof locks are always engaged before driving - so they can't unlock the doors during the trip.
  • Dress your child comfortably in clothing that's suitable for the temperature inside the car.
  • When it comes to food, make sure you feed your child something easy to digest that won't sit heavily in their tummy on a long car trip.
  • Take care when driving; leave at least a three second gap between your car and the car in front so you can brake smoothly and safely.
  • Take regular breaks when driving long distance so you and the kids can stretch your legs.

Distracting the driver

Some parents can happily tune out yelling, fighting or the six millionth off-tune version of the latest top 40 song while they're driving. Others can't. Children need to understand that driving a car is a big responsibility and that the driver needs to be able to concentrate to keep them safe. If children don't respond to a request to be quiet, pull over until all is safe to drive again.

Keeping our kids safe on the road really just means paying attention to the road rules, and creating a few rules for our family that'll keep everyone safer while you're travelling. It pays to be alert, and to teach your kids from an early age about the importance of staying safe in and around cars.