Children and Road Safety
The topic of road safety and children is always an emotive one. Nothing tugs at the heart strings quite like watching a precious, young, innocent child bleeding as a result of a car accident or worse still, lying lifeless on the ground.
For the sake of our loved ones, let us be responsible. We need to be the example we want to see in them. Let us not rob them of a bright future because of our selfish recklessness.
Road safety in schools is unfortunately covered very informally and haphazardly. What educators and the authorities fail to understand is that road safety is a science and if covered in a systematic fashion in school curricula, will go a long way towards inculcating the correct attitude and behaviour on our roads, from a formative age. In fact, the children could teach adults a thing or two about complying with the rules of the road!
Road safety needs to be taught from a young age, meaning that from the time the child is born, the new born is transported home in a secure baby carrier, then progressing to different car seats, booster seats and the like and right up to old age, road safety is inevitable.
As parents, much can be done about inculcating non-negotiable road safety behaviour from a young age whether it is buckling up or practicing safe road crossing habits. Children learn from adults and our immature conduct behind the wheel in respect of road rage is going to be copied by the youngsters. So too, will they learn about the “short cuts” we take when going for licenses, vehicle roadworthiness or the bribes we pay at a road-side checkpoints. It’s not worth it because it will come back to haunt us.
Finally, as they grow older, one of the best gifts we could give to our novice drivers is to enroll them for an advanced, defensive driving skills course immediately AFTER obtaining their driving licenses and before the bad habits set it. Accredited advanced driver enhancement institutions will teach them critical observation skills, hazard identification and avoidance, car control, driving in adverse conditions and driving with mechanical sympathy. A customized course could also include aspects such as incident management, hijack prevention, your rights at a roadblock and basic car care.
