Road Safety and Children

In general, crossing the road is one of the major problems that children face, whether they are going to the mall or going to the school. Eventually, you will have to cross a road and you have to know the dangers that come along with this.

Recent reports have shown that children have been involved in car accidents and they are usually the victims because they were trying to cross the road. In most schools, school children are not educated about the dangers of the road. Could this be a key reason as to why there are road accidents?

The explores this possibility.

As a child going to school, you are considered a vulnerable road user. Any location that has a potential for moving vehicles is a dangerous traffic situation for you and there are many factors you need to be aware of.

Children are vulnerable road users because everywhere they go, there is a potentially dangerous traffic situation for children. This includes residential areas, car parks, traffic lights, along footpaths, zebra and other crossings, driveways, quiet streets and busy streets.

There are some primary schools in Windhoek that offer road safety education to their pupils, such as AI Steenkamp Primary School, and they carry out road crossing exercises before they commence with their classes each day and at the end of the school day.

The road safety exercise is an exercise that is carried out by the senior pupils of the school to assist the younger ones with crossing the road, who are normally accompanied by a guardian teacher. After school, the senior students stand at the crossing section of the road and they direct the cars when to drive or when to allow the children to cross the road. With this sort of education provided to the pupils, they will have background understanding on road safety in general.

Patrick Mayumbelo, a Geography teacher at Jan Jonker Afrikaaner High School, says that road safety should be included in the school curriculum. “It should be provided in schools within the Life Skills subject. If we can have it included, then the pupils will be more educated and aware of road safety.”

Mayumbelo also went on to say that urban areas play a factor in road accidents. “There are minimal road accidents in rural areas compared to urban areas. Although there are a lot of road safety campaigns in the urban areas, they are not really helpful as most of the pupils are very ignorant towards this.”

Many children below the age of 10 do not have the capability or judgement to handle many pedestrian situations. Children learn about road safety largely by experience. As a child, you can ask your parents some questions on road safety and perhaps they might give you some awesome pointers. If you are a cycler, you would have to be even more aware of the traffic around you. Always wear a helmet and make sure that it is strapped on correctly. Make sure that other people on the road can easily see you. In order to do this, you can wear reflective or bright clothes. And if you are going to wear takkies, remember to tie your laces because you do not want them to get caught in the pedals. That would be disastrous! A red reflector on your bicycle is important as well as a front or yellow lamp. Reflective armbands and belts are a must as well. Last, but not least, always ride in single file to avoid overcrowding the road.

Although you might think that you are grown up enough to handle crossing a road alone, there are a few things you might want to think about:

• You can easily be distracted on the road and focus on only one aspect of what is happening around you.

• You are smaller and harder for drivers to see.

• You are less predictable than other pedestrians.

• You cannot accurately judge the speed and distance of moving vehicles.

• You cannot accurately predict the direction sounds are coming from.

• You aren’t able to cope with the sudden changes in traffic conditions.

• You can’t always identify the safest places to cross the road.

• Stop, look and listen to the sound of the cars on the road.

• Don’t try to cross the road between parked cars.

• Never cross at a bend.

• If there is a footpath – use it!

• Walk in single file if the road is narrow or there is heavy traffic.

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