Road Safety

Teaching children about road safety from an early age is really important. It’s a topic that even the youngest children can learn something about because they will be using the roads (including pavements), whether they are walking, cycling, scooting or travelling as a passenger in a vehicle.

It’s never too early to start teaching children the Green Cross Code, encouraging children to stop, look, listen and think with you before crossing the road. It can be a fun activity to teach children while you’re on the school run or a walk to the park.

The Child Accident Prevention Trust have useful information to break it down and keep it simple. There is also information on the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents website.

Walking to and from school independently

Travelling to and from school alone or with friends brings more risk. As children start secondary school, the number of journeys they take may increase and they may be travelling longer distances or using busier roads.

Child pedestrian accidents do peak at age 12, linked to independent travel. And unfortunately, over half of serious child pedestrian accidents occur between 3pm to 7pm, coinciding with after-school hours.

But these are not inevitable. There is a lot parents and carers can do to prepare children for travelling alone.

• Give children as much supervised experience of crossing roads as possible before they do it alone. You could take turns to be the leader crossing the road.
• Encourage them to sit down and plan their route to school. The quickest route won’t necessarily be the safest - always try to use dedicated crossings and avoid crossing near parked cars.
• Remind your child that if they’re ever not sure, the safest thing to do is to wait until the traffic passes.

Read more from The Child Accident Prevention Trust.

Child Car Seats

Children must normally use a child car seat until they’re 12 years old or 135 centimetres tall, whichever comes first. You can choose a child car seat based on your child’s height or weight.

Child Car Seats: the law on using a child car seat or booster seat