GloWeek 2024: The importance of child road safety

As autumn draws in and the daylight hours get shorter, road safety is more important than ever.  Even though there is a duty on drivers to look out for more vulnerable road users, their visibility is reduced by less daylight and gloomier weather, so all road users, including pedestrians, should make sure they are visible.

At Coodes Solicitors, we support the Child Brain Injury Trust’s GloWeek campaign from 28^th October to 1^st November 2024. This week, they ask we spread awareness by speaking to the young people in our lives about road safety. The focus of the campaign is ‘be seen, not hurt’ and the importance of being visible as a pedestrian.

We should all make sure that we are visible when using roads as a pedestrian, cyclist, scooterist or horse rider. However, we should also encourage children and young people to consider how visible they are when out and about.

Heather Kearton-Gee, Chartered Legal Executive on Coodes’ Personal Injury team, explores.

Child road safety

Children under the age of 16 are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users, in particular, child pedestrians. In fact, child pedestrians account for the majority of children killed or seriously injured as road users.

In particular, young people of secondary school age are more at risk. Consider that primary school children are most often accompanied to and from school and travelling shorter distances. The risk increases for secondary school children, who may travel a longer distance unaccompanied as they become more independent.

2013 statistics suggest that 58% of child pedestrians are killed or seriously injured between the hours of 8am and 9am and again at 3pm and 7pm. This is reinforced by more recent data gathered between 2018 and 2022 that found the peak time for pedestrians to be killed or seriously injured is between 3pm and 6pm which is also peak time for children to be on their way home from school or after-school activities.

Teaching road safety

Some primary schools will educate pupils in road safety, but this is not provided in all cases. In this instance, it may be that parents and carers are the only ones responsible for teaching this to children.

In more rural areas such as Devon and Cornwall, this becomes especially important with winding roads or lack of proper pavement space and road crossings. Vision Zero South West, a road safety partnership working to reduce collisions in Devon and Cornwall, found that between 2018 and 2022 urban areas accounted for 26% of road casualties in Cornwall. In shocking contrast, 74% of casualties were occurring in the more rural areas.

Children can be taught about road safety from an early age and can be taught to hold hands with their parent or carer while they are out. They can also be taught by example about safe crossing places and how to behave near busy traffic.

As they become more independent, it is vital to instil in them the importance of following road safety advice. It’s also important that they make themselves visible by wearing bright clothing or reflective strips on outerwear or bags. This will make it much easier for motorists to see them when they are walking or crossing the road.

Avoiding accidents

The importance of GloWeek cannot be understated, encouraging parents and guardians to have a simple conversation with the young people in their lives about the importance of road safety. Avoiding accidents by being seen is the best outcome for everyone.

If you or your child have been involved in a road accident, Coodes is here to provide support and help you get back on track. Our team of specialist personal injury lawyers support clients across the South West and beyond and have done so for over 40 years.

For further assistance, reach out to Heather Kearton-Gee by emailing heather.kearton-gee@coodes.co.uk or calling 01326 231 036. Additionally, you can fill in our online contact form.

To find out more about the Child Brain Injury Trust’s GloWeek campaign, visit: https://childbraininjurytrust.org.uk/campaigns/gloweek/