Kiddipedia

Kiddipedia

Like parents, schools can contribute to road safety for kids through road safety policies in and around the school area. A road-safety policy for schools could include recommendations to parent drivers, educating kids and parents on road safety, and improving signage and zoning in and around the school.

Educate parents

Use newsletters, blog articles on the school website, and flyers to communicate safety recommendations to parent drivers. While other drivers also use the roads around the school, parents are the most frequent users and most likely to be driving during peak periods such as the start and end of the school day.

  • Slow downRemind parent drivers of the importance of observing speed limits. Reinforce the significance of slowing down in school zones. Limiting speed has been proven to help with reducing road trauma rates.
  • Take extra careLet parents know how it important it is to take extra care around schools and not to rush.
  • Practice crossing with kidsSuggest to parents that they practice crossing roads safely with kids, and act as a positive role model when with their children.Through discussions and experience – which parents in their daily interactions with their children are perfectly positioned to provide – kids can get the essential practice they need to use roads safely. For example, schools in Geelong, Victoria, were able to achieve good outcomes with an initiative to both reduce traffic and encourage parent-supervised walking to school1.
  • Children as passengersWithout a restraint, children in cars can be 10 times more likely to be killed in a road crash.Laws requiring child restraints have helped with lowering road trauma levels.Highlight the importance of having a correctly fitted appropriate child’s car restraint or booster seat for children in vehicles.Kids should also be seated in the rear row of the vehicle for maximum safety.

Educate kids

Provide road safety training for kids through different media. For example, you can provide regular road-safety sessions during school hours, hand out road-safety brochures with kid-friendly graphics, and even use interactive web-based games or tutorials to teach kids about safety on the road.

What type of education works with kids?

Research on road safety initiatives for young people suggests relying on fear-based appeals, information-based programs, or one-off day education sessions may not work as well as in-school programs. Comprehensive, interactive programs delivered on a regular basis tend to be more successful, especially if they build the social competencies of young people, and are delivered across age groups and the curriculum.

Developing education and training programs

A great idea is to incorporate government programs into your regular in-school road-safety program. Get your school involved in programs like Walk to SchoolRide2School and Walk Safely to School Day, and work with government initiatives like NSW’s Road Safety Education Program.

The National Practices for Early Childhood Road Safety Education are a good starting point for your education program. As you develop your in-school road-safety education program, keep the following tips in mind.

  • Age considerationsChildren usually need help when dealing with traffic environments until the age of 10. Until then, they’re not physically and developmentally able to make critical decisions about safety on the road. Younger children will need more hands-on supervision than older children.
  • Children as pedestriansChildren are easily distracted, harder for drivers to see, and less predictable than adult pedestrians. They might be less capable of judging the speed and distance of vehicles, and they may find it hard to judge the direction of traffic based on sound. In addition, they usually have poorer ability to react to changing traffic conditions and are less capable of judging where it’s safe to cross. Teach kids to use a systematic crossing strategy, especially younger children, so they can overcome their inherent vulnerabilities as child pedestrians.
  • Safer places to crossTeach kids to use pedestrian crossings and traffic lights where possible, even if it means they have to walk farther. Avoid crossing between parked cars where it’s harder to see approaching traffic, and take extra care in carparks.
  • BusesEducate kids about staying on the kerb until the bus has come to a complete stop, and let them know how to check for oncoming traffic when disembarking. Remind kids it’s important to wait after the bus leaves if they have to cross to the other side of the road.
  • BikesOlder children who bike to school can benefit from in-school programs on bike safety as well as government programs like Bike Ed. Educate kids about the importance of wearing a correctly fitted helmet and other protective and high-visibility clothing. Teach them about riding a bike that’s appropriate for their height, and riding in safer places off the road where possible.

Local road authorities

School zones do have a strong impact on road trauma rates: research by the NSW government, for example, confirms fatalities and injuries in school zones among school age pedestrians dropped significantly with the implementation of 40km/h school zones1.

Contact your local road authority if your school has any concerns about possible risks. Pay attention to local road and construction projects, so you can give your input as a school and make sure road-safety considerations are a priority for the regulating authority.

 

For more information, please go to: realinsurance.com.au/school-safety

 

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