Children suffer disproportionately more pedestrian accidents than adults. This article reports some relevant research, showing that children often do not share adult's views of how they are meant to behave in the presence of traffic, so that they fail to apply whatever road-user skills they have. The specific behaviour that a child produces in a specific context is critical. Children's inconsistent use of traffic skills is typical of children in many types of risky situation. At all ages from 5 to 15, children were found to use systematic criteria in deciding who has or has not behaved appropriately on roads. For the 5-year-old, the road user's responsibility is not to damage things; for the older child, it is not to make the kinds of mistakes that might cause an accident. The transition between these two attitudes may occur surprisingly late in child development. There is a fundamental difference in how younger and older children understand what they are supposed to be doing in relation to road safety; it is essential to allow for this difference, because it has implications for how children of different ages will behave at the roadside. Road safety education should train children, not only in roadside skills, but also in basic concepts of road user behaviour that avoid errors.
Abstract