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The
National Safety Council and the Pedestrian and Bicycle
Information Center are pleased to join Honda in offering
a free copy of this DVD geared to students ages five
to nine. During the 14-minute program, students discover
safe and responsible street crossing steps that will
educate and entertain them as they develop important
pedestrian safety skills and learn to make smart safety
decisions.
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Being struck
by a car is a leading cause of death and injury to children.
The greatest risk is to children 5-9 years of age, in their
own neighborhoods. The group takes in children from Kindergarten
through the 3rd Grade.
Children are difficult to protect, since they lack skills
and experience that most adults have come to take for granted.
Children are not mini adults!
- Children are impulsive - they don't stop to think of
the safety of a movement.
- Children have little or no sense of danger.
- Children have a difficult time judging the speed of
approaching cars - indeed, they may not even be able to
tell if they are moving!
The task of training children on pedestrian safety is complicated
by their level of development. Pedestrian safety messages
such as "look both ways" are simple enough. Children will
learn to recite rhymes and may move their head in both directions
- it's not enough.
The real message (which older children and adults realize
intuitively!) is "look both ways and see if any cars are coming,
if they are, figure out how fast they are going and if there's
enough time to cross, if not wait until one or both go by".
No wonder this confuses little kids!
There have been many attempts to educate young children, few
show significant results in improving their safety. Until
age 9, children have great difficulty learning these difficult
judgmental skills. They are not ready.
The real solution is for drivers to behave differently when
driving around areas where kids live and play. We need to
engineer streets to encourage drivers to drive at appropriately
low speeds. Traffic calming
is a method of creating these conditions.
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Helpful Links:
Walk to School Day
The web site offers a history of Walk to School Day, child
pedestrian information, resources for planning events and
online registration.
http://www.walktoschool.org
Preventing Pedestrian Crashes: Preschool/Elementary School
Children
Provides information to parents on pedestrian risks for preschool
and elementary school children. Safe and Sober Campaign. Taken
from the NHTSA website.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/outreach/safesobr/15qp/web/sbprevent.html
Kidswalk-to-School:
This guide is a resource to help communities develop and implement
a year-long walk-to-school initiative. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk/kidswalk_guide.htm
Pedestrian Injury:
Pedestrian injury remains the third leading cause of unintentional
injury-related death among children ages 5 to 14. SafeKids.
http://www.safekids.org/
Pedestrian Fatalities Related to School Travel:
A fact sheet pertaining to school age children. NHTSA.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/ped/Getting_to_School/pedestrian.html
Rules of the Road for Grandchildren: Safety Tips
If you are a grandparent, you can play an important role
in teaching your grandchildren the "rules of the road." AARP.
http://www.aarp.org/confacts/grandparents/rulesroad.html
Streets in America are unsafe and unforgiving for kids:
Article by the Pedestrian Safety Roadshow. U.S. Department
of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration.
http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/articles/unsafe.htm
Focusing on the Child Pedestian:
Pedestrian Information from the FHWA.
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roaduser/pdf/PedFacts.pdf
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