This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Child pedestrian training schemes
23/01/2002
Pilot schemes to teach young children road safety are to be launched in targeted areas of Scotland.
Three local authorities will receive funding to run training schemes to teach five and six year olds practical road safety skills. Priority has been given to poorer areas as research shows that children from disadvantaged areas are more likely to be killed in road accidents than their better-off counterparts.
Each scheme will involve a local co-ordinator, appointed by the local authority, who will work alongside trained volunteers, local authorities and road safety units to set up and run schemes in a number of selected schools.
Deputy Transport Minister Lewis Macdonald said:
"I am pleased to announce that Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire Councils have been chosen to set-up and maintain the first of the pilot schemes.
"It is vital that children know how to use roads safely. Children from poorer areas are most at risk and effective schemes are essential to provide practical training. The schemes will build on the work already carried out by the Scottish Executive-funded Children's Traffic Club in Scotland.
"Good progress has been made in cutting the number of children killed or seriously injured on Scotland's roads. The Executive is committed to halving the number of child road deaths and serious injuries by 2010.
"I hope these projects will help us achieve this target and ensure that Scottish children stay safe on the roads."
The pilot programme will run for six years and the Scottish Executive will fund individual schemes for their first three years. The schemes will be based on the Kerbcraft child pedestrian training initiative that was developed from work carried out in Glasgow's Drumchapel area.
Fatal and serious child casualties were 63% lower than the level of the early 1980s by 2000. Deaths of child pedestrians have fallen by 71%. However the fatality rate for child pedestrians in Scotland is substantially higher than in England.
Research on Road Accidents and Children Living in Disadvantaged Areas, published in 2000, found that child pedestrians from disadvantaged areas were four times more likely to be killed than children from the highest socio-economic group. Their injures were also likely to be more severe.
The Scottish Executive announced on 4 September that it was to fund programmes of pilot child pedestrian training schemes to be set up and run by selected local authorities in Scotland. Funding totalling £810,000 will be provided over six years. Every local authority in Scotland was invited to bid for funding in the first of three bidding rounds.
The first local co-ordinators in Scotland will be in post by 1 May 2002 and the training of children will commence in September 2002.
The Children's Traffic Club in Scotland was relaunched in February 2001 when changes were made to the format and content of training materials to encourage greater use, particularly among lower income families. It offers free road safety training to three and four-year-olds.