Road Safety Workshop

With increasingly busy lifestyles and more and more traffic on the roads, child road safety can sometimes be a fatally neglected issue.

In 2008- 57 pedestrians (under 16 years) were killed on the roads in Britain and 1,784 were killed or seriously injured. Two thirds were male.
Reference: Child casualties in reported road accidents Great Britain :2008, DOT

In Jersey 16 children were hit by cars in 2010.
Teaching children road safety is vital to them staying safe as they become more independent.

The risk of a child pedestrian being involved in a road accident rises significantly at the age when they start school and, up until the age of nine, most children cannot judge how fast vehicles are going or how far away they are.

• Children aged between 11 and 16 are most at risk of being killed or seriously injured. Road safety needs to be taken seriously and reminders given about the dangers.
• Make sure the school journey is as safe as possible by discussing any dangers along the route.
• Make sure that whenever children are on the road they know they need to be aware of what is going on around them and should not be distracted by personal stereos, mobile phones or friends.

The Road safety workshop is run by the Road Safety Officer and Prison! Me! No Way! co-ordinator. A quiz format is used to look at a variety of different types of exercise with emphasis on road safety for pedestrians.

Aim of the Exercise; The children will be able to
To improve road crossing skills of visiting pupils

• At the end of the quiz the pupils will be able to:
  Understand what constitutes a safe place to cross a road where there are no forms of crossing facilities available.
  To know how to safely and correctly use the different forms of road crossing facilities.
  Understand the dangers of busy, fast and multi-lane roads even when using road crossing facilities.
  To know the advantages of, and how to use a traffic island to cross a road safely.
• Key messages
  What to look for, prior to crossing a road, where there are no crossing facilities available.
  Don't trust the 'green man' on the pelican light.
  How vehicles in the centre lane of a multi-lane road don't always see pedestrians.
  Look out for cyclists.
  What the flashing 'green man' on the pelican light means.
  Vehicles don't always stop at zebra crossings.
  What the flashing yellow lights at zebra crossings mean.
  Using a traffic island makes crossing the road easier and safer.
  Cars don't have to stop to let you cross at a traffic island.
• Appropriate Action
  Find a safe place to cross the road (What constitutes a safe crossing place) Make sure all has traffic has stopped before stepping into the roadway at a pelican or zebra crossing Pelican crossings - Normal operation - pressing the button, waiting for the 'green man', what the 'bleeper' means.
  'Green Man flashing' - On approach to crossing, do not cross but wait and press button - If you are in the process of crossing, continue on your way smartly without running (do not turn round and go back).