Back To School Means Watching Out For Kids

26 January 2001

ACC is reminding adults and children about how to keep safe and prevent injuries on the road during the back to school period.

“This is a potentially dangerous time, with children once again travelling to and from school. Often kids might lack knowledge or experience about road safety and this is an important time to remind parents of the dangers and to make sure their kids are ready for the journey to school”, Dr Keith McLea General Manager of ACC Injury Prevention said today.

From this Sunday press and radio advertisements will encourage children to wear their helmets, take care on their scooters, watch out for cars and not to play on the roads. Adults will also be reminded to watch out for kids on the road when they are driving.

Injury Prevention research shows children are unable to judge distance, speed and physical size in the same way adults can. This creates problems when they have to assess things like the time it takes to cross a road.

“You can’t rely on children to consistently behave in a safe way, that’s why ACC is also trying to equip them with safety information that they can understand.” Dr McLea said.

Primary Schools will soon be receiving a set of posters and stickers with key injury prevention messages. There will also be a kid’s colouring competition featuring the ‘Safe T’ character run through the press in the next few weeks.

This initiative is part of ACC’s ‘Mind that Child’ injury prevention campaign, which was launched last year. The campaign’s aim is to reduce injuries to children. Injury statistics show that every year over 15,000 children are injured so badly they’re admitted to hospital and over 100 children die.

Hospitals, heath providers and social agencies have now received the posters and booklets on child safety.

A further booklet on preventing injuries to under 5’s will soon be available through organisations such as Parent Centres.

“We’ve had great feedback on the material, especially from hospitals. They say it’s an interesting and colourful way to get the injury prevention messages across.” Dr McLea said.

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