Road Safety Week: 7 Strategies to #SaveKidsLives

Communities across New Zealand will be marching for kids’ safety as part of UN Global Road Safety Week 2015 (4-10 May), to help #SaveKidsLives and prevent children and young people being killed and injured on NZ roads.
On average 19 children are killed each year and 270 are hospitalised after a motor vehicle traffic crash in New Zealand. Many of them are pedestrians, cyclists or car passengers travelling to and from school.

Around the world more than 500 children are killed every day as a result of road traffic crashes.

It’s a global epidemic, and Safekids Aotearoa and Brake, the Road Safety Charity, asks everyone to#SaveKidsLives this Road Safety Week (4-10 May) by following these 7 road safety strategies:

For students:
• They’re safer in a booster seat till they’re 148cm. Primary school children seated in booster seats are 59% less likely to be injured in a crash than children using a seat belt alone.
• No helmet, no brain. Wear safety helmets when cycling or scootering or skateboarding. For cyclists, wearing a helmet reduces the likelihood of severe brain injury by 74%.
• Devices down, heads up. Remove earphones when crossing the road, and stop walking if you need to make a phone call or send a text message.
• Watch out for sneaky driveways. If you can’t see the driveway from the footpath, remember to stop, look and listen to make sure there are no cars exiting the driveway.
For drivers
• Double check those intersections and crossings. A student might dart across the street when you least expect it. They’re also pretty hard to see inbetween parked cars.
• Slow down at school zones at all times. School zones have signs that require you to follow a lower speed limit. Some school signs are turned on before and after school and other times such as lunch time. Safekids Aotearoa encourages drivers to slow down at school zones at all times, even on weekends.
• Passing school buses: Either way it’s 20kph. If a school bus has stopped the law requires you to slow down and drive at 20km/h or less until you are well past--no matter which direction you are driving from.
------------
Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Child Injuries by DHB Region (Data collected by Safekids Aotearoa).
DHB Area Hospitalisation (2009-2013) Deaths (2007-2011)
Northland 82 6
Waitemata 162 <5 Auckland 103 <5 Counties Manukau 186 12 Waikato 158 14 Lakes 43 7 Bay of Plenty 96 10 Tairawhiti 35 0 Taranaki 33 <5 Hawkes Bay 65 14 Whanganui 27 <5 Mid Central 46 7 Hutt 31 0 Capital and Coast 41 0 Wairarapa 11 <5 Nelson Marlborough 36 <5 West Coast 15 0 Canterbury 91 7 South Canterbury 15 <5 Southern 61 <5 *<5 = less than 5 deaths
-end-

© Scoop Media