Advice for parents about children making independent road journey

[Pamela Prentice]

I’m writing from the Child Accident Prevention Trust – hoping to get some insight into advice to help parents support their children around road safety with the move from primary to secondary school. We’re particularly keen to put out advice for families given the pandemic means children missing out on the normal road safety support from their primary school before the summer holidays.

I’d really appreciate a quick chat to find out what you would advise parents so we can put some helpful information out via our social channels as well as an article on the CAPT website. If you could help I’m on pam.prentice@capt.org.uk or 02076087361. We’d be very grateful for any advice.

Pamela Prentice

[admin]

Dear Pam,

My background is in the engineering sphere, rather than that of education.

However, the one thing that I would like to impress on all pedestrians and cyclists is that one should never, ever, assume that just because one can see the approaching driver, that he or she can see you.

I don’t know if that’s helpful, but it could be a life-saver …

Kind regards,

Andrew Fraser

[admin]

Hi Pam,

My main focus is on visibility, particularly as the nights start to draw in and ‘Ditch The Distraction’. We have had a fatality and many near misses due to children walking to school focused on their phones and not the traffic.

Parents could be advised to discuss the dangers of using mobile devices, and particularly using devices while wearing head phones or ear buds which block the sound of traffic and create an unsafe environment for the user. Its a hard task as most school pupils from year 6 upwards have mobile phones and sadly they have become a permanent appendage.

Stuart Mottershaw

[admin]

Hi. I would strongly recommend advising parents to look for local cycle training that they can take part in as a family (or send their children on). I would also strongly advise parents to get their own cycle training – particularly Mums. When Mum cycles, the family is much more inclined to do so.

Philippa Robb Walk And Cycle London CIC.

[admin]

Pam, we developed a resource for early secondary school pupils, covering the transition phase. Entitled “It’s You Call”, it can be accessed on the roadsafety.scot website, the direct url being:

Third and Fourth

Michael McDonnell

[Author]

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