A one-year-old girl has died after she was hit by a reversing car driven by a neighbour on a driveway outside her home in Sydney’s west overnight.

Neighbours within the Kent Street unit complex in Blacktown said the child’s mother had been talking to the driver about 7:30pm just before it happened.

The 40-year-old driver reportedly described reversing about 1.5 metres before he “felt a bump”.

Despite the efforts of neighbours and paramedics the girl could not be saved.

The driver, who is a father himself, was treated at the scene for shock before he was taken to Blacktown Hospital to undergo mandatory testing.

Neighbours of the girl’s family, Jodie and Paul Melville, were sitting in their unit when their own young daughter ran inside to tell them what had happened.

Ms Melville said what she found when she walked out was disturbing.

“She was laying on the ground and someone was working on her, they were trying to do CPR and everyone was on phones,” she said.

“It was horrible, and then you’re trying to keep the children away from it as well, it’s not something you want any family to go through or for your own kids to see.”

Ms Melville said the girl’s parents and several siblings are “shattered” but their neighbours, which include a number of young families, would rally around them and the driver.

“The family need all the love and support around them, we are all here for them, I can’t imagine what they’re going through,” she said.

“And for the driver as well, we’re here for him too.

“I believe there’s no animosity between the family and him.”

She described the child as a bright and affectionate baby which was always “reaching out for a cuddle”.

The 40-year-old man has been described as usually a cautious driver, but Mr Melville said others were known to speed through the area.

He said the complex is used as a ‘rat-run’ for people seeking to avoid traffic lights on Richmond Road, but that the owners have declined repeated requests to install a boom gate.

Police inquiries into the incident are ongoing and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

-ABC