According to the World Health Organization (WHO) figures, 500 children are killed each day in road crashes globally. It is therefore not surprising that road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among 15–19 year-olds and the second leading cause among 5–14 year-olds)[1]. Millions more children are injured each year and require hospital care for non-fatal injuries as a result of road traffic crashes. These are compelling figures which should give us all a clear and unequivocal mandate to take action aimed at reducing the vulnerability of our children to the carnage currently obtaining on our roads. While children are at risk in vehicles, on bicycles and motorcycles, available data indicate that child pedestrians are one of the most vulnerable road user groups.
Why this vulnerability?
Child pedestrians, especially the young ones are vulnerable because of their small physical size and their undeveloped abilities for dealing with traffic situations, such as the cognition (attention, focus, interpreting traffic signs) or the perception (locating signs, judging speed, peripheral vision)[2]. With regard to physical size, this is huge problem as supported by available data which shows that injuries to the head are the major causes of pedestrian fatalities, whereas injuries to the lower body are usually non-fatal[3]. Due to their small size as well as their softer heads, young child pedestrians are more susceptible to serious head injury in a traffic collision compared to adults, as they are likely to be hit on the head (while for an adult the point of impact will likely be the lower limbs). While the older children of adolescent age do not have these physical and cognitive limitations they are however prone to take risks thereby compromising their safety on the road.
Implications of traffic danger on child independent mobility (CIM)
Partly in response to this vulnerability, child independent mobility (defined as the degree to which children of different ages are allowed to make trips to school, friends, shops and other destinations unaccompanied by adults) has been curtailed[4]. In the seminal study of declining child independent mobility, Hillman et al (1990) found that child independent mobility in England and Germany had declined and attributed this to parents withdrawing children from traffic and ‘stranger danger’ by limiting children’s freedom to move unaccompanied. A subsequent 2010 study that aimed at replicating the seminal study in South Africa (specifically the Western Cape) indicated that children in the higher-income neighbourhoods of Cape Town have also experienced a decline in independent mobility[5]. The results of the same study also suggest that while children in the lower-income neighbourhoods have higher independent mobility, they feel unsafe while travelling alone. While this curtailment of children’s independence is understandable in light of the real and present traffic danger, studies suggest that this unfortunately has a negative impact on the development of the child including reduced physical activity levels among children as well as reduced personal, social and spatial cognitive development[6].
Keeping children safe on the road
What then are we to do in the face of this huge problem of road traffic crashes and the vulnerability of children? Surely any hand wringing is pointless. Instead, we should all (parents, schools, the corporate sector and government at all tiers) roll-up our sleeves and get working individually and cooperatively to make South Africa’s roads safer for our children. As part of observing the Third United Nations Global Road Safety Week (4–10 May 2015), WHO published a useful document listing the following strategies as key in keeping children safe on the road:
- Controlling speed
- Reducing drinking and driving
- Using helmets for bicyclists and motorcyclists
- Restraining children in vehicles
- Improving children’s ability to see and be seen
- Enhancing road infrastructure
- Adapting vehicle design
- reducing risk for young drivers (through implementing graduated driver licensing)
-
providing appropriate care for injured children
- Supervising children around roads
These are essential actions which we should all fully adopt and support individually and collectively in our everyday lives. Admittedly, reducing road traffic trauma for children is a very difficult task. However, it is not an impossible one if we adopt the above-mentioned strategies.
Opportunity to engage on child road safety: #SaveKidsLives Workshop
A great opportunity for all interested in keeping children safe on the road is an upcoming workshop running under the theme #SaveKidsLives. This is one of a series of monthly workshops jointly coordinated by the Global Road Safety Partnership South Africa (GRSP ZA), Safely Home and Childsafe. The workshops are hosted by Childsafe at their head offices in Cape Town and are held every last Thursday of the month. In essence, the idea is for road safety messages to be spread amongst the collectively reached stakeholders. Available data (in the Western Cape) indicates a spike in fatal crashes and fatalities during the pay-day weekend. The last Thursday of each month was therefore deliberately chosen for this reason. The workshops are aimed at identifying individuals with a constituency (e.g. journalists and community leaders) who can help carry the road safety message to the broader society, then engaging with them in an intimate learning environment.
Far from being mere talk shops, the workshops are aligned with the Safely Home Road Safety Calendar of the Western Cape Government through its Department of Transport and Public Works. The Calendar is a population-level marketing campaign aimed at reducing levels of road trauma through effecting behaviour change by raising awareness of specific road safety themes at specific times using best practice mass communication methodologies. Examples of monthly themes for 2016 are:
- #BetheChange (March & April 2016)
- #ItCanWait-focusing on distracted driving, primarily cellphone use while driving (May 2016)
- #SeeAndBeSeen-Visibility (June 2016)
- BoozeFreeRoads-Alcohol and roads don’t mix (July 2016)
- #SaveKidsLives (October 2016)
As indicated above the theme for October is #SaveKidsLives. The September 2016 workshop will therefore run under this theme and we call upon all those who have an interest in keeping children safe on the road to attend. The workshop details are as follows:
Venue: Woolworths Childsafe Building, Red Cross Children’s Hospital, Cape Town
Date: Thursday 29 September 2016
Time: 10:00-12:00
References
[1] World Health Organisation (WHO). (2008) World report on child injury prevention. Geneva, World Health Organisation.
[2] Cross, D.S., Hall, M.R. (2005) Child pedestrian safety: the role of behavioural science. Medical Journal of Australia, 182(7): 318-319.
[3] Liu, X.J., Yang, J.K. (2002) Development of child pedestrian mathematical models and evaluation with accident reconstruction. Traffic Injury Prevention, 3:321–329.
[4] Hillman, M., Adams, J. and Whitelegg, J. (1990) One False Move: A study of children’s independent mobility. London, Policy studies Institute.
[5] Behrens, R. and Muchaka, P. (2011) Child Independent Mobility in South Africa: the case of Cape Town and its hinterland. Global Studies of Childhood 1 (3), 167-184
[6] Hillman, M. (2006) Children’s Rights and Adults’ Wrongs, Children’s Geographies, 4(1), 61–67.
