Teaching Street Safety to Children

The basics of street safety can be taught to children even while they are very young. In most cases, this begins with parents literally holding the child’s hand to cross the street. Slowly but surely the child gains other skills, such as looking both ways and only crossing in crosswalks or other designated areas.

These skills are of major importance for children, particularly children who walk to and from school every day. A child who lives even a half-mile from school racks up hundreds of miles a year on foot. Though pedestrian-car accidents are rare compared to auto on auto collisions, they are more likely to cause significant injury or even death.

Parents should be certain their children are displaying proper street safety skills before the first day of school each year. After a summer of lounging and playing, children may have forgotten some things, and remedial instruction is good. Children should be reminded how to:

• Find and use crosswalks
• Look both ways before crossing the street
• Use buttons at traffic lights and follow walk and do not walk instructions
• Follow any rules and regulations for walking with or against traffic
• Put their phones away while walking, instead of risking distraction

Though there is nothing anyone can do to be completely safe as a pedestrian, following safety guidelines can minimize the risk. This is particularly true in heavy traffic areas such as large portions of New York City. Being attentive to the behavior of drivers can be the difference between life and death.

If your child or another pedestrian has been injured or killed in a car accident, determining what caused the incident is important. Please reach out to a qualified attorney about your case. An experienced lawyer will know how to find out what the driver was and was not doing before the terrible moment when things went horribly wrong.