Prevent Child Pedestrian Accidents by Making Your Neighborhood More Walkable

June 18th, 2010

In the ten years between 1990-2000, there was a 49 percent decline in the rate of traffic-related pedestrian deaths in children ages 14 and younger. The decline can be attributed to decreased exposure to traffic, educational programs, increased law enforcement and efforts to improve pedestrian environments. Unfortunately, some of the decline may be because children are simply not walking as frequently. According to the SAFE KIDS organization, nearly half of all elementary school children walked or biked to school in 1969. But by 1995, only 10 percent of children walked or biked to school.

Walking is a no-cost mode of transportation which gets children to exercise, improves air quality by reducing vehicle emissions and allows parents and children to spend time together, free from the distractions of driving. You can help make your community a place that allows children to walk to school and other activities—safely and free from danger.

However, teaching children how to safely cross the street is not enough. One of the best ways to prevent child pedestrian accidents is by increasing “walkability” in your community. The National SAFE KIDS Campaign collected over 9,000 “walkability checks” across the country. The study showed that nearly 60 percent of parents and children found at least one serious hazard on their routes to school. Frequent hazards included a lack of sidewalk or crosswalk, wide roads, complicated traffic conditions, improper parking and speeding drivers. You and your community can help kids avoid these hazardous conditions by creating safe walking environments. Here’s what you can do:

Promote driver awareness about safe behaviors, traffic laws and penalties for violations through media campaigns, brochures and public service announcements.
Encourage parents to walk or bike with their children to school, and also to walk or bike to work, to ease traffic congestion.
You can create programs such as “walking school buses,” which provide adult supervision along routes child pedestrians take to school.
Develop programs that encourage more walking and less driving, such as creating a school-wide “Walk-to-School” day.
Contact your local law enforcement department about increasing traffic enforcement around your child’s school, community center or other facility where you notice hazards.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 10:13 am and is filed under Child Safety, Pedestrian Accidents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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