• 48 children died on UK roads in 2022 – excess speed is a factor in 25% of fatal crashes
  • A crash at 30mph has twice the amount of kinetic energy as a crash at 20mph – reducing speed saves lives
  • 64% of parents say their school doesn’t have 20mph speed limits on all roads near school
  • Parents say they don’t walk their child to school because roads are too busy (36%) and traffic is too fast (25%)
  • Today more than 110,000 children from more than 720 schools across the UK are taking part in Brake’s Kids Walk with Shaun the Sheep, supported by esure.

Brake is calling for 20mph speed limits to be implemented around all schools in the UK, as parents report roads aren’t safe for their children to walk to school.

According to new research published by Brake
, parents and carers across the country say they don’t walk their children to school every day because roads are too busy (36%) and cars go too fast (25%). Compounding this, nearly two-thirds (64%) of parents say their school doesn’t have 20mph speed limits on all surrounding roads.

More than 110,000 children (aged 4-11) from more than 720 schools and nurseries are taking part in Brake's Kids Walk today, calling for their right to make safe and healthy journeys without fear or threat from traffic.

To coincide with the launch of the walk, Brake has highlighted the true extent of child casualties on the nation's roads (see Table 1).

Latest official figures show that 11,580 children aged 15 or under were killed or injured on roads in the UK in 2021; an average taken from the last five years gives a figure of 13,503 [1]. This means that, on average, 37 children die or suffer injuries as a result of road crashes every single day. Provisional figures for 2022 show that 48 children died on roads in the UK, or one child almost every week [2,3].

We often hear that because no one has been seriously hurt or killed on that road, there is no need to make any changes

Gitta Streete, Headteacher, Dropmore Infant School

At Dropmore Infant School in Buckinghamshire, parents have reported passing traffic ripping off a car door when they dropped their children off at school; meanwhile children have to walk on roads exposed to speeding traffic because there are no pavements.

Dropmore sits at a T-junction in Littleworth, a village sandwiched between Slough and junction 2 of the M40. The speed limit on nearby roads is 60mph, and although it reduces to 30mph outside the school, there are areas with no pavement, no crossing patrol, and very few designated parking spaces. A local Community Speedwatch group has recorded cars speeding past the school at an average of 38mph, with the highest speed recorded in front of the school being 54mph.

Headteacher Gitta Streete has been campaigning for the speed limit to be reduced to 20mph for many years. “What we often hear back is that because no one has been seriously hurt or killed on that road, there is no need to make any changes,” she says.

“One parent had their car door taken off by a passing car,” Streete continues. “That could easily have been a child, parent or carer being hit. What we need is a proper, phased speed reduction system: a reduction to 20mph outside the school and safe areas for everyone to walk along and cross the road. Thankfully, no one has been hurt yet, but road safety measures should not be solely left to the school to enact.”

Dropmore Infant School has a platinum-level accreditation for road safety from the Modeshift STARS programme [4], and as part of its tireless campaigning to make roads near the school safer, the school has signed up to take part in Brake’s Kids Walk – an annual schools walk coordinated by road safety charity Brake, and sponsored by esure.

The 110,000 schoolchildren taking part in Brake’s Kids Walk will complete a short, supervised walk around their schools and/or communities. They will carry banners and posters, provided by Brake, to help raise awareness of the five things they need to help keep them safe near roads: slower traffic, cleaner traffic, better footpaths, better cycle paths, and safe places to cross.

Lucy Straker, campaigns manager at Brake, says: “Sadly, we know that Dropmore’s situation is being replicated across the country. We speak to lots of schools where teachers are doing everything they can to make the roads near their school safe, but ultimately they need support from their local council and decision-makers. Why do we have to wait until a child is killed before we act?

“We know that excess speed is a factor in about a quarter of fatal crashes [5], and the physics is pretty straightforward: the faster a vehicle is travelling, the harder it hits and the greater the impact. A crash at 30mph has twice the amount of kinetic energy as a crash at 20mph. Reducing speed saves lives.

“As schools up and down the country take part in Brake’s Kids Walk to shout out for safe places to walk, with slow traffic, we’re calling for roads around every school to have 20mph speed limits – and other measures to effectively reduce traffic speed – so children and their families can travel safely to and from school every day.”

Excess speed is a factor in
25%
of fatal crashes

Schools taking part in Brake’s Kids Walk can run special road-safety-themed assemblies, lessons and fun activities, using free resources from Brake. Brake has also provided schools with a Kid’s manifesto for safe and healthy journeys that they can use to help them ask local or national decision-makers to make the roads around their school 20mph – Brake’s research supports this call, with many parents clearly worried about the speed of traffic near their children’s school.

David McMillan, CEO of esure, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with Brake’s Kids Walk for the third year running and to raise awareness of the importance of safer roads and cleaner air for schoolchildren across the UK.”

Resources are available to any parent, carer or teacher to download for free at www.brake.org.uk/kidswalk. The event can also be used to fundraise for Brake, which supports families who have lost loved ones in road crashes.

Brake, the road safety charity, has been organising walking events for schoolchildren at a national level for more than 15 years. The charity is also behind Road Safety Week – the UK’s biggest road safety campaign each November.

Brake’s Kids Walk 2023 is sponsored by esure.

Table 1. Reported child road casualties for the UK by region, 2017-2021.

Data shows the number of children aged 0-15 killed, seriously injured or slightly injured in road crashes in the 12 regions of the UK. Source: Department for Transport (DfT) and Police Service Northern Ireland road traffic statistics.

Reported child road casualties for the UK by region, 2017-2021.

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

5 yr average

North East

611

580

560

387

465

521

North West

2052

1966

1713

1198

1510

1688

Yorkshire and the Humber

1698

1507

1396

1024

1275

1380

East Midlands

1044

1055

1059

686

850

939

West Midlands

1503

1381

1406

937

1027

1251

East of England

1529

1316

1301

848

1022

1203

South East

2298

2176

2037

1312

1589

1882

London

2397

1960

1844

1227

1486

1783

South West

1094

988

954

712

792

908

Wales

582

573

546

349

414

493

Scotland

913

764

758

491

494

684

Northern Ireland*

864

804

889

644

656

771

Total

16,585

15,070

14,463

9,815

11,580

13,503

Table 2. Reported child road casualties for the UK by region, 2020

Data shows the number of children aged 0-15 killed, seriously injured or slightly injured in road crashes in the 12 regions of the UK, per million population, in 2021. Source: Office for National Statistics mid-2021 population estimates, Department for Transport (DfT) and Police Service Northern Ireland road traffic statistics and reference 2.

All casualties under 16 (killed, seriously injured and slightly injured)

2021 population

Casualties per million population (2021)

North East

2,646,772

176

North West

7,422,295

203

Yorkshire and the Humber

5,481,431

233

East Midlands

4,880,094

174

West Midlands

5,954,240

172

East of England

6,348,096

161

South East

9,294,023

171

London

8,796,628

169

South West

5,712,840

139

Wales

3,105,410

133

Scotland

5,479,900

90

Northern Ireland*

1,904,563

344

*As the Northern Ireland figures come from a different data source, caution should be used when making direct comparisons.

References Down arrow icon to open accordion
  1. Department for Transport (2022) Reported road casualties in Great Britain: Annual Report 2021 and custom data set
  2. Department for Transport (2023) Reported road casualties in Great Britain: Provisional annual figures. Table RAS9102
  3. Police Service of Northern Ireland (2023) Road traffic collision statistics: 2022 fatal casualty figures
  4. modeshiftstars.org
  5. Department for Transport (2022) Reported road casualties in Great Britain: Annual Report 2021 and associated data sets