“It is up to us as grown ups to keep children safe on our roads.”
Those are the words of Ross Moorlock, Brake’s chief executive officer, on this year’s Beep Beep! Day (24 April).
On Beep Beep! Days, schools, nurseries and childminders sign up to share important road safety messages with young children and their parents and carers.
Participants receive an action pack of teaching resources that includes activities to help children learn about road safety, plus important messages to send home to parents and carers, all illustrated with characters from Aardman’s popular children’s TV programme Timmy Time.
This year, nearly 4,000 establishments are taking part.
Beep Beep! Days focus on three simple things to help young children be safer near roads – holding hands with a grown up when walking, crossing roads at safe places and always using a child seat when travelling by car.
Ross Moorlock, chief executive officer at Brake, said: “Beep Beep! Day is a great opportunity to start a conversation with young children about why road safety is so important. It is up to us as grown ups to keep children safe on our roads, and this is a great way to engage their attention and help them learn about making safe journeys.
“It’s also a great opportunity to send vital safety messages out to all parents, carers and the wider community too.”
Brake recently polled more than 120 parents and carers of children, aged 7 years or under, to understand behaviours and concerns they may have about their children’s journeys.
When asked about how their children travel to school on a typical day, more than two-thirds (69%) said they walk, wheel or scoot, while less than one-third (28%) said they mainly travel by car. (The rest chose other modes of transport).
Brake says it’s worrying to see that almost half (46%) of parents polled don’t always hold their child’s hand when walking near roads or crossing roads, and 10% said that for short journeys they might let their child travel in a car without using a child seat.
When asked what factors would encourage them to walk or cycle more with their children, a quarter (24%) said safe pavements, footpaths and crossing places.
Comment on this story