Road safety week campaign
A recent campaign, known as Kids Say Slow Down, is encouraging drivers to be more aware of their surrounding while they are on the roads. The campaign which stems from the Road Safety Week, which runs at the end of November each year, is an incentive that has been set up by Brake, the road safety charity.
The scheme, has been set up to encourage safe driving and it hopes to lower the number of car accidents that take place on UK roads and thus limit the number of car accidents – in particular those that involve young children and affect their families. A report that has been commissioned by the Brake charity indicates that more than 80 per cent of children between the ages of 9-13, believe that motorists drive too fast when they are on roads nearby their schools or homes.
In addition to this, a previous survey conducted in 2009 involving over 13,000 children, illustrated that 70 of the child participants had been involved in a car accident – some of which ended in severe personal injuries including brain damage, amputations and even fatalities. One in ten of the recent survey participants revealed that they know someone who had been involved in a car accident, while 16 per cent said that they themselves has been involved in a ‘frightening experience’, while they have been near roads.
For the children who have been involved in car accidents, their families can consider making compensation claims for the personal injuries that they have sustained as a result of the incidents.
Unacceptable number
Joanna Bailey, a spokesperson for the Brake organisation, explained the ‘unacceptable’ behaviour that had affected several young people.
She said: “In the 18 years it takes for a child to grow up and become an adult, nearly a quarter of a million children will have been struck by a vehicle while they were walking or cycling, more often than not, on their journeys to and from school. This is unacceptable.”
Her comments highlighted the fact that UK figures of child pedestrian fatalities as a result of car accidents are one of the highest in Europe. Joanna said: “The UK child pedestrian death rate remains higher than ten other EU countries, and eight times higher than Sweden's.
"These appalling figures dramatically illustrate how much more we need to do to further reduce the numbers of children who are killed or maimed on UK roads each year.”
She also highlighted factors that can lead to car accident – ignoring speed limits which leads to too little braking distance.
In addition, she explained how speed limits provide drivers with the opportunity to counter affect a road accident. Joanna said: “At 20mph drivers have a good chance of stopping in time if a child runs out three car lengths in front of them.
"At 20mph, it takes an alert driver approximately 12 metres, that's three car lengths, to come to an emergency stop, compared to 23 metres or six car lengths if a vehicle was being driven at 30mph.”
Fall in road collisions
A major deterrent of car accidents involving children has been the speed limit. Recent evidence involving all of the 20mph roads in London – more than 300 – indicates that there has been a 42 per cent and 50 per cent drop in car accidents leading to casualties and fatalities respectively that involve children under the age of 15.
Joanna went on to say: “Road Safety Week 2010 is all about slowing down. It is paramount that drivers heed this crucial safety message and start cutting their speed.”
“The needless injuries and loss of so many young lives, and the subsequent devastation caused to families as a result of speeding cannot be allowed to continue.”
She concluded by saying that: “When drivers choose to ignore speed limits or fail to allow for adequate emergency braking distances it is all too often the innocent child pedestrian or passenger who unfortunately suffers the consequences.”
Updated on 12/13/2010