Every day more than 500 children lose their lives on the world’s roads. school — losing their lives while walking to their daily lessons, hit by speeding traffic while attempting to cross. Many are killed on the journey to or from a four lane highway, falling from the family motorcycle, or becoming a casualty while sitting unrestrained on the school bus. And for every child that dies, another four are permanently disabled. Ten more are seriously injured. Thousands of children, every day, cut down while playing, shopping or getting an education. The equivalent of two large secondary schools are emptied of children in this way every day. All tragedies; all preventable. Because we know how to prevent child deaths, disabilities and injuries on the road. By implementing a ‘Safe System’ approach beginning with effective institutions and rule of law; with measures to improve infrastructure safety; to make vehicles safer and more pedestrian-friendly; to reduce speed limits wherever and whenever children and vehicles are likely to meet; by promoting walking and cycling and providing proper facilities and equitably sharing the road to enable them; by investing in safe public transport; and by supporting sustained and fair enforcement of the laws: by implementing these approaches many countries, in every income bracket, have managed to drive down road traffic casualties. So why do so many children continue to die? Because too many countries have not yet got to grips with their road traffic injury epidemic. And because children, adolescents and young adults are particularly vulnerable on the roads. They need extra care and protection. We know that income is a big factor. Poorer countries have proportionally higher road traffic fatalities than richer nations. Within all countries poor communities, ill-served by public transportation or land-use planning, forced to walk without the means to do so safely, are particularly impacted. A quarter of a century ago the world agreed that children, among society’s most vulnerable, need special protection, special rights. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was the result. Yet we estimate that since 1989, when the Convention was approved, more than 5.5 million children under the age of 19 have been killed on the world’s roads. This is unacceptable. Children should not face daily, high speed, violence at the hands of adults. We all have a duty to do whatever we can to challenge and change this. And we can make roads safer for children. We can do it by implementing policies that will protect children now and in the future, will engender safer road user behaviour in future generations, will ingrain healthy lifestyles, can help to reduce air pollution — another major killer and disabler of children — and assist in the efforts to combat climate change. The new Sustainable Development Goals to be finalised this year can generate new momentum ensuring that measures to protect the poorest and most vulnerable are a development priority. Targets for road safety are included in two complementary Goals: on health (goal 3) and cities (goal 11). Their inclusion is recognition by the international development community that road traffic injuries need to be tackled, and fast. This report focuses on one particular area of policy and implementation: the journey to and from school. UNICEF and the FIA Foundation have come together to work on this area because we care about increasing and enhancing children’s access to education and life opportunity; we share a concern about child health; and we want to see a new impetus to reduce child injury on our roads and in our public spaces. We hope this report will help to spark a new global movement to make the school journey safe for all the world’s children. (Author/publisher)
Abstract