This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Child pedestrian training schemes
23/01/2002
Pilot schemes to teach young children road safety are to be
launched in targeted areas of Scotland.
Three local authorities will receive funding to run training
schemes to teach five and six year olds practical road safety
skills. Priority has been given to poorer areas as research
shows that children from disadvantaged areas are more likely to
be killed in road accidents than their better-off
counterparts.
Each scheme will involve a local co-ordinator, appointed by
the local authority, who will work alongside trained
volunteers, local authorities and road safety units to set up
and run schemes in a number of selected schools.
Deputy Transport Minister Lewis Macdonald said:
"I am pleased to announce that Glasgow City, North
Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire Councils have been chosen
to set-up and maintain the first of the pilot schemes.
"It is vital that children know how to use roads safely.
Children from poorer areas are most at risk and effective
schemes are essential to provide practical training. The
schemes will build on the work already carried out by the
Scottish Executive-funded Children's Traffic Club in
Scotland.
"Good progress has been made in cutting the number of
children killed or seriously injured on Scotland's roads. The
Executive is committed to halving the number of child road
deaths and serious injuries by 2010.
"I hope these projects will help us achieve this target and
ensure that Scottish children stay safe on the roads."
The pilot programme will run for six years and the Scottish
Executive will fund individual schemes for their first three
years. The schemes will be based on the Kerbcraft child
pedestrian training initiative that was developed from work
carried out in Glasgow's Drumchapel area.
Fatal and serious child casualties were 63% lower than the
level of the early 1980s by 2000. Deaths of child pedestrians
have fallen by 71%. However the fatality rate for child
pedestrians in Scotland is substantially higher than in
England.
Research on Road Accidents and Children Living in
Disadvantaged Areas, published in 2000, found that child
pedestrians from disadvantaged areas were four times more
likely to be killed than children from the highest
socio-economic group. Their injures were also likely to be more
severe.
The Scottish Executive announced on 4 September that it was
to fund programmes of pilot child pedestrian training schemes
to be set up and run by selected local authorities in Scotland.
Funding totalling £810,000 will be provided over six years.
Every local authority in Scotland was invited to bid for
funding in the first of three bidding rounds.
The first local co-ordinators in Scotland will be in post by
1 May 2002 and the training of children will commence in
September 2002.
The Children's Traffic Club in Scotland was
relaunched in February 2001 when changes were made to the
format and content of training materials to encourage
greater use, particularly among lower income families. It
offers free road safety training to three and
four-year-olds.