Effectiveness of a campaign to reduce accidents involving children crossing roads near parked cars.

The effectiveness of a road safety campaign in Greenwich was measured. The aim of the campaign was to reduce child pedestrian casualties associated with children going into the road near parked cars. In the study, children from two schools in Greenwich were filmed on journeys to and from school and were given a playground test and a picture test to assess their ability to cross from parked cars. These measures were made at the beginning of the campaign and again two months later. The campaign seemed to have no effect on crossing behaviour during journeys to and from school but was associated with an improvement in performance on the two tests. Children from a control school in a similar London borough showed no improvement in the same two tests. A comparison of accident statistics in Greenwich with those for five similar boroughs suggested that the campaign may have contributed towards a reduction in child pedestrian casualties. (Author/publisher)