Pedestrian Safety

If your children count on two feet instead of four wheels to transport them to school, you have some extra homework to do to prepare them.

Pedestrian injuries account for 630 deaths each year and remain the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children 5 to 14. Children are particularly vulnerable to pedestrian injury because they are exposed to traffic threats that exceed their cognitive, developmental, physical and sensory abilities. Children are impulsive and have difficulty judging speed, spatial relationships, distance, and velocity.

In 1999, 733 children ages 14 and under died from pedestrian injuries.

Prevention

Follow these tips to make sure your children's walks are as safe as possible:

• Children under 10 should never cross the street alone. Accompany your child at crossings or pair her with an older escort.
• Choose the safest and most direct route and walk it with your children every day until you are confident that they are ready to do it without you.
• Teach your children to recognize and obey all traffic signals and markings.
• Make sure your children look in all directions before crossing the street. Teach them to stop at the curb or edge of the road, and to look left, right and left again for traffic before and while crossing the street.
• Teach your children not to enter the street from between parked cars or from behind bushes or shrubs.
• Make sure your children know that they should cross streets at a corner and crosswalk.
• Remind your children to be extra alert in bad weather. Visibility might be poor and motorists might not be able to see them or to stop quickly enough.
• Be a good role model by obeying traffic signals and markings. Even if your children aren't with you, someone else's children may follow your example.