When we talk about road safety, between the ages of 5 and 19, many deaths occur due to road accidents. The World Health Organization has emphasized this.
Therefore, there must be awareness guidelines and actual practices about road safety for children and adolescents, both inside the car and when crossing roads and walking.
In this article, we will provide essential guidelines for children about road safety and traffic safety.
3 tips for pedestrian children about road safety
There are some practices that parents should do to educate children about road safety and avoid falling into a mistake that may endanger their lives, including these tips and practices:
Stop and look before crossing the road
Parents should teach their children how to cross the road. By explaining the steps they take before crossing, such as stopping, looking in both directions of the road, making sure there are no nearby vehicles or pedestrians, and then crossing the road. Also, they shouldn’t cross the road as fast as running, so as not to get stuck, nor slowly.
Accompanying children when going out on the road
Parents must go with their children when they go out on the street and the road and not leave them alone, to teach them how to interact with cars, how to walk on the road in the absence of a sidewalk, and the means that must be followed to achieve the greatest safety when crossing the roads.
Using pedestrian crosswalks
Parents teach children that if there is a crosswalk, they must cross the road through the crosswalk. When the traffic light for cars is red and the pedestrian signal associated with the luminous tiles of the pedestrian crosswalk turns green, they can safely cross the road.
Risk statistics about road safety for children
Some factors threaten the lives of children in vehicles, which we will divide into two sections.
Dangerous places
Rural areas are more dangerous for children, and they are more likely to die than in urban areas, according to statistics:
- Rural counties per 100,000 population is 4.5, urban 0.9
- Children who used seat belt restraints in Rural counties per 100,000 population is 2.9, urban 0.5
Dangerous performance
The majority of children who ride with a driver who is wearing a seat belt are also wearing a seat belt, while 77% of children do not wear a seat belt because the driver is not wearing one.
Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol poses a significant risk to all passengers, including children. In 2021, 25% of child passenger fatalities were caused by a driver under the influence of alcohol.
Using a car seat incorrectly also puts children at risk, such as using a loose child seat belt or putting the seat belt behind the child’s arms.
How to raise awareness among children about road safety
The authorities responsible for traffic safety, as well as companies that contribute to it and specialize in this field, such as Shawahid Industrial Road Company, must raise awareness and alertness to this issue, in addition to our role in manufacturing traffic safety systems that protect pedestrians and children.
You can check our systems, some of which are used to protect pedestrians, through our website and product page.