Road Traffic Accidents: the biggest child killer in the UK

The biggest single killer of 11 to 16 year olds in the United Kingdon is road traffic collisions. 40,000 children a year, or 100 a day, are injured or killed in road traffic collisions.

In Rochdale there were 72 child casualties in this age group in 2006 and figures in the borough in the last three years show that accidents amongst children rise considerably at age 12.

At age 11/12 children face a major change in their lives, when they leave primary school for high school. This is a new and exciting time but figures show that it can also be a dangerous time.

At this time children gain increased independence and many will begin travelling to school alone for the first time. Secondary schools are often further away from home than Primary schools meaning that children have longer journeys on more roads at the busiest times. The journeys are different from what the children are used to and many are not prepared for them.

The new journey could also mean using public transport for the first time and making new friends increases the number of distractions.

Parents prepare their children for this big change in many ways, such as by providing new uniforms, new pens, pencils and school bags, ensuring that they ready when they get to school for the first time. Quite often though the journey to the new school is something that is forgotten when making sure that children are prepared for their first day.

When Rochdale Council's Road Safety Unit speak to year 6 pupils towards the end of their time in primary school they advise them to plan their new journey with a responsible adult during the summer holidays. They can go with parents/carers, grandparents etc. and plan out the safest route. They should find the safest places to cross e.g. zebra crossings, traffic lights amp; pedestrian refuges. If travelling by public transport they need to know where to get on and off buses, trains etc. and the cost of their journey. 

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority have a very good website:

• www.gmpte.com

This has a journey planner which anybody can access and plan journeys from start to finish. You can view maps of your journey, which will flag up every bus stop en-route and it shows many other things such as the total journey time and the time it will take to walk from the start destination, such as from home to the nearest bus-stop.

Growing independence means that children will make more journeys without adults and the Road Safety Unit advises them to plan each journey carefully and to have a back-up plan if things go wrong. 

They are advising parents to give their child one less thing to think about on their first day at high school: "Help them to plan their journey so that both they and you will have peace of mind."

Date article online: 20/08/2007