April 23 marks the start of a United Nations initiative to reduce the road accidents that kill more than half a million children and young adults around the world each year.
To support the UN Global Road Safety Week, the IAM Motoring Trust has produced Children and road safety: a guide for parents (see Notes to Editors). It identifies where and when children in five distinct age groups are at most risk on the road, and offers advice on what parents can do to minimise the risk.
“The statistics show clearly the dangers to children of starting a new journey pattern, by changing school, for example, or a new mode of travel as they progress from walking to cycling to driving,” says Neil Greig, IAM Trust Assistant Director.
Although the number of children in Britain who are killed or seriously injured in road accidents each year has halved since 1990, the road toll remains high. About 550 children will lose their lives this year -- 400 of them from the most vulnerable 16 to 19-year age group, where casualties have hardly reduced since 1994.
“Children become road accident casualties in different ways at different ages,” says Neil Greig. “Parents need to know why, how and when their children are most at risk on the road so that they can take the appropriate action to minimise the risks.”
ends
Notes to editors
1 Children and Road Safety – A Guide for Parents has been taken from a larger study carried out for the IAM Motoring Trust by Dr C G B (Kit) Mitchell as a contribution to the UN’s First Global Road Safety Week. Results from the main study will be published later in 2007.
2Download Children and Road Safety – A Guide for Parents at www.iamtrustchildsafety.org.uk
3 Sources:
DfT, Road Casualties Great Britain, 2005
DfT Child Road Safety – Achieving the 2010 Target, 2002 updated by special tabulations provided by DfT Road Safety Statistics Group
National Travel Survey
4 Links:
First United Nations Global Road Safety Week
Make Roads Safe
FIA Foundation
5 The IAM Motoring Trust is the research and advocacy arm of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)
Media Contacts
Barry Walsh 020 8996 9776 barry.walsh@iamtrust.org.uk
Neil Greig 020 8996 9772 neil.greig@iamtrust.org.uk
