Children are a vulnerable group among road users. They are, after all, still building up skills which will eventually allow them to become safe and independent road users. The role of parents in teaching their children how to behave safely in traffic is very important. In this fact sheet, children are taken to belong to the age category 0 to 14, unless specified otherwise.
In recent decades, children’s road safety has greatly improved, although the decrease in road deaths seems to have stagnated in the last few years. In comparison to other age groups, children are less often killed in traffic and less often get seriously injured in a road crash. This positive safety trend is mainly caused by the increase of 30km/h zones, the improved occupant safety of cars and more frequent use of child restraint seats. When children do get seriously injured in traffic, they are often walking or cycling. Most fatalities occur among children on bicycles involved in a car crash. Only 0-4-year-olds are most often killed as car occupants. Effective measures to further increase children’s road safety are: speed reduction for motor vehicles; autonomous emergency braking systems in cars; use of adequate means of protection such as bicycle helmets; and gaining a lot of experience as supervised road users at a young age.
