Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Promoting Child Pedestrian Safety Measures
Over 700 children have been killed in the US while walking as a pedestrian, and 500 of those occurred in traffic, according to a report on pedestrian safety by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) and National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
A panel was created to focus on reducing childhood pedestrian injuries in the US. Partners in this effort are the CDC, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the USA Safe Kids.
According to the report, experts in motor vehicle safety, public health, city planning, school safety, child development, and engineering have tried to find solutions. But child pedestrian safety is one of the most complex societal problems in injury prevention today.
Goals of the Pedestrian Safety Panel
To enhance the well-being and safety of children by:
- Reducing their risk of injury while walking
- Increasing their physical activity level
- Creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment
The Panel’s strategies include:
- Enhancing public awareness about the need to improve safety for child pedestrians.
- Creating coordinated national, state, and local public information campaigns that increase public awareness and understanding of pedestrian safety from a traffic perspective.
- Modifying the behavior and attitudes of both pedestrians and drivers to improve sharing
- the road.
- Taking into account different parenting styles and abilities.
- Encouraging parents to supervise their children in traffic and to teach their children age-appropriate pedestrian safety rules.
- Modifying the physical environment to better support pedestrian traffic.
- Developing and conducting effective safe-walking programs.
- Conducting surveillance to measure children's pedestrian injury rates, quantifying the amount of walking children normally do, and identify risk factors for injury.
The panel made up of the CDC, National Highway Safety Administration, and the USA Safe Kids organization encourage those concerned about child pedestrian safety to take these goals and strategies and implement them at the local level, as well as dedicating themselves to improving the safety of children everywhere.
Kiley Law Group located in Boston and Andover, Massachusetts takes time when speaking with you about your case and works with you on a contingent basis so there are NO FEES unless our Boston pedestrian accident lawyers wins your case. Call now for a FREE evaluation of your case – 1-888-208-1695.
