Road safety is not just for younger children. As pupils get older, the risks increase. Pupils need to walk, cycle and play safely without supervision. They also need to understand how to be safer passengers in vehicles, including on school buses, and then, if they learn, how to be safe motorbike riders and car drivers.

Pupils need to study their road safety A B C (Awareness, Behaviour Choice).

The extent of road crashes and the carnage they cause

Pupils can explore the number of deaths and serious injuries on roads and their breakdown by mode of transport, type of road, age of people hurt, time of day, likely causes, and many other categories. Look at ways of comparing statistics, for example casualties occurring by miles traveled by different types of road user.

Pupils can learn that people on foot and bicycles are called vulnerable road users because they don’t have the protection of a vehicle around them. Vulnerable road users are more likely to be killed if they are in a crash than car occupants. Horse riders and motorbike riders are also vulnerable.

Older pupils can learn that young drivers and motorbike riders die much more frequently than older drivers.

Use ‘the facts’ page on Brake’s website for facts and figures on a range of road safety topics.

The science of crashes

What happens in a crash - For example, pupils can explore:

• how vehicles are crash-tested;
• stopping distances for drivers travelling at different speeds, in different weather conditions, and how these distances are affected by drivers being distracted or impaired;
• the weight of vehicles of different sizes, and how this affects their speeds and stopping distances;
• the damage caused to the human body in impacts;
• reduced visibility in darkness;
• reduced grip of tyres in the wet;
• the protective qualities of cycle helmets, head restraints (pdf), seat belts, airbags and crumple zones (pdf).

The causes of road crashes

What are the most life-endangering risks that people take on roads? Look at some of the risks commonly taken by different types of road users:

• Pedestrians cross the road without looking;
• Cyclists don’t wear helmets;
• Motorbikers race on rural roads;
• Drivers drink or take drugs and drive, use mobile phones, overtake blind and break speed limits.

Your life or somebody else’s
Safety and citizenship education is about looking after your own, *and other people’s *welfare. Explore the risks you pose to yourself or others, depending on your mode of transport.

Pedestrians who don’t look before crossing roads are most likely to kill themselves, but drivers going too fast in town are most likely to kill other people on foot or bicycles.

Drivers going too fast on rural roads may kill themselves but have a high chance of also killing other people, because of the high speeds.

Use these facts to explore the greater responsibilities of driving, particularly if drivers are carrying passengers. Have you ever told a driver to ‘slow down’ Many young drivers pack their cars with young friends - are they wearing seatbelts? Are they sitting calmly and quietly to allow the driver to concentrate?

Explore the costs of road crashes to the ambulance service, the police, Accident and Emergency departments and Intensive Care Units (ICU). What is an ICU and what happens in one? Use BrakeCare’s downloadable guide for families with a loved one in an ICU, ‘What happens in an ICU?’ (pdf).

What are life-long injuries? Explore what it means to be brain injured or have a spinal injury. Explore the enormous costs - medical care, care in the home, inability to work, and the impact on injured people’s families. For information on the consequences of serious injury in a road crash, you can download Brake’s guide ‘Advice for victims, family and friends following a serious injury in a road crash’.

What is the emotional impact of someone dying on the road? Who is affected and how? Explore what it might mean practically for a family if the main bread-winner is killed in a crash. Who is going to pay the bills? For information on some of the emotional consequences of bereavement through a road crash, you can download Brake’s booklet for bereaved families, ‘Coping with Grief’.

B IS FOR BEHAVIOUR

How to be as safe as possible when using roads
The foundation learning in A will stand pupils in good stead for discussing the importance of the ‘rules of the road’ with the gravitas they deserve. If you haven’t covered A first, don’t skip it! It’s a vital first step.

The rules when walking
If you are responsible for pupils with special education needs, it is essential, depending on their abilities, to ensure they are familiar with the Green Cross Code and, if appropriate, given the opportunity to practice it through practical roadside training. Contact your local council’s road safety officer and click here for free resources on teaching the Green Cross Code.

Impressing upon other pupils the importance of following the Green Cross Code can best be achieved through project work and discussions  - they need to tell you about right and wrong behaviour, and the importance of putting it into practice.

Pupils could be entreated to think again about the Green Cross Code by helping educate younger children about the importance of it - for example, through a poster campaign they design and display at a nearby primary school or a website they devise for younger children.

The rules when cycling
Safely-run, on-road cycle training is the only way to ensure that pupils know how to cycle as safely as possible - cycling in a playground is inadequate training. Click here for advice on offering practical cyclist training. You can also teach the importance of cycle helmets, bicycle maintenance and high-visibility gear for cyclists.

The rules when on the bus
Messing about when boarding or disembarking a bus, and crossing the road in front or behind a bus, can be fatal. Failing to sit down sensibly, or use seat belts if fitted, is also dangerous. Click here for free resources on bus safety, including driving a school minibus in safety.

The rules when driving
The Highway Code contains the rules of the road, which are all important. But which rules are most frequently broken by young drivers and cause deaths and injuries of themselves, their passengers, and innocent road users? Brake has researched and summarised the most important, life-preserving rules in its 'Pledge to Drive Safely' campaign, which tackles key issues including drink and drugged driving, not belting up, speeding, and the dangers of using a mobile phone while driving. Click here for information on the Pledge, including a downloadable guide based on the Pledge, ‘Are you a safe driver?’. By focusing on key, high-risk activities that cause death and serious injury, young people can be taught the enormous social responsibility of safe driving.

C IS FOR CHOICE

Making the safest possible choices
Peer pressure plays a big part in young people taking life-threatening risks on roads. The potentially fatal consequences of peer pressure ranges from younger pupils being ‘dared’ to run into the road in front of traffic, to older pupils racing cars against mates in other vehicles, or accepting lifts from drunk drivers.

Road safety is an ideal topic to use to explore the importance of taking responsibility for your own safety - by ensuring you have a choice (e.g. by carrying money for a taxi when on a night out) and by speaking up for the safest choice (e.g. having the courage to say ‘no’ to mates who want to play ‘dare’ in the road).

Explore distractions and temptations that make young people decide against a safe choice, e.g. talking on a mobile phone while crossing a road, driving fast to impress others, or drink-driving to get to another party. Explore the dangers of risk-taking.

Explore feelings of invincibility and ‘it won’t happen to me’ that many young people know too well, and which contribute to the decision to make a dangerous choice.

Explore young people’s fear of ridicule from their peers if they make a safe choice e.g. not wanting to belt up in the back ‘because none of my mates have’.

Explore pupils’ role as citizens to help others make safe choices, e.g. by helping younger siblings cross roads safely.