A road safety campaign group is calling for more road safety education on the back of new statistics which show road traffic to be the biggest killer of teenagers globally.
Birmingham-based DriveSafe & StaySafe made the call after World Health Organisation (WHO) figures published yesterday (17 May) revealed that road collisions accounted for 10% (120,000) of the 1.2m deaths among 10-19 year-olds during 2015.
In the UK alone, road collisions accounted for 145 deaths and 3,166 serious injuries across the same age range and time period.
DriveSafe & StaySafe says road safety education should be part of the UK national curriculum, and is calling for more Government-led awareness campaigns to remind families of the dangers on the roads and the need for drivers to be more careful and conscious of children and young people.
Fay Goodman, managing director of DriveSafe & StaySafe, said: “It is tragic that so many teenagers are killed needlessly on the roads, with all the devastation this causes families and friends.
“We need to start now in educating children as young as four on how to keep safe and be aware of the environment around them, and in ensuring schools, colleges and all educational outlets continue to promote the message of how important it is to follow sensible road safety procedures.”
Want to know more about teenagers and road safety?
Online library of research and reports etc – visit the Road Safety Knowledge Centre
Key facts and summaries of research reports – visit the Road Safety Observatory
I have been in the Road Safety business for over 30 years, supplying high viz and reflective products. These products were used to help educated young children in road safety. Unfortunately with all the budget cuts, this does not happen anymore. Local authority road safety departments, do what they can but budget restraint means that education materials cannot be bought.
From experience the younger children are taught road safety the better. There is far more risk in this day and age, so it is critical we get back to tried and trusted methods. Without the cash though, this is just not going to happen.
Money is ploughed into cycle training, but pedestrian training is a thing of the past, it is just not carried out on the scale it used to be!
As a company, we diversified into other products, because orders for reflective materials are virtually non existent these days.
We do have some schools asking for material offcuts, which we are happy to supply free of charge when available.
Mike Hancox Warwick
0
AS I see it part of the problem is that drivers do not see the child or young person until its too late to avoid them and/or that persons fails to see or take into account that there is or may be a vehicle present and approaching.
Much of this can be caused by vehicles travelling far too close together and therefore pedestrians are not seen in time and pedestrians can’t see the vehicle that may hit them.
With drivers exercising greater safe space known as The Following On distance then all parties can have an improved view of what’s happening in the road scene and many such deaths and injuries can be avoided. It’s not always the case but it can account for many incidents and collisions and as such should be recognised and interventions put in place.
Tailgating is not only dangerous to vehicles, it’s totally dangerous to all other road users.
Bob Craven Lancs
0
It’s a tragedy when anyone gets killed or badly injured on the roads isn’t it? I don’t see how highlighting a particular age group helps, as the factors would essentially be the same. If we can get drivers to be more careful and have less collisions then all age groups will benefit.
Incidentally, it doesn’t say in the article whether the victims in this age group were pedestrians or car occupants.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
0
The inter-departmental review of road safety education for school children, between the Department for Transport and the department for education, said exactly that in their published report in 1936. What we need is a sound argument for putting road safety education on the National Curriculum.
Within the Human Rights Act there is the right to life and the right to education. The Human Rights Act requires the government to protect human life. This means that nobody – including the government – can try to end your life. It also means that you have the right to be protected if your life is at risk.
Similarly, public authorities should consider your right to life when making decisions that might put you in danger or which affect your life expectancy. If a member of your family dies in circumstances that involve the state, you may have the right to an investigation. The important words are “You have the right to be protected if your life is at risk”.
Right to education.
Everybody has the right to an effective education. Parents also have a right to ensure that their religious and philosophical beliefs are respected during the children’s education.
Restrictions
The right to education does not give you the right to learn whatever you want, wherever you want. The courts have ruled that the right to education relates to the education system that already exists. It does not require the government to provide or subsidise any specific type of education. The government is allowed to regulate the way education is delivered. For example, it can pass laws making education compulsory or imposing health and safety requirements on schools.
School admission policies are permissible so long as they are objective and reasonable.
Although parents have a right to ensure their religious or philosophical beliefs are respected during their children’s education, this is not an absolute right. So long as these beliefs are properly considered, an education authority can depart from them but only if there are good reasons for doing so and it is done in an objective, critical and pluralistic way. Again the important words are “the right to an effective education.”
I would argue that lack of a road safety education fails children in that we know that their lives are at risk and to keep them safe we need an effective education covering their modes of travel for them and for the general public. This would be a major step towards a national curriculum.
Peter Wilson Westminster City council
+1
It is parents who need to sit up and take note of these statistics if they want them to change. Parents in the majority of cases are walking their children up to the age of 11 to school and most other places on the streets.
In many instances they are not educating or guiding their children how to assess the risk of managing the road environment, they are simply dragging them along with them. It’s no wonder when they reach the age of 11 and head of to secondary education and increased independence they lack the ability to access risk for themselves and are at increased risk on the road.
Keith
0