Road safety for Children can be ensured by the systematic and pragmatic approach in implementing the rules of traffic in society. In addition, the enforcement of traffic rules should be done in a phased manner so as to include all the people, with special emphasis on children. Nevertheless, children are most vulnerable on the roads to be accident victims because of their age, ignorance and playful nature.
This issue can be solved by taking some actions to educate and enforce traffic rules.
1. Road safety lessons for children
Teach them young and they will learn for a lifetime. This is true even for traffic rules. Moreover, lessons on traffic rules and road safety practices should be taught as a part of the curriculum. And it enhances the knowledge of traffic rules among kids, which teaches them to safeguard themselves on the road. It will also serve as a strong base for building a sensible future generation following traffic rules.
2. Road safety Games, mock drills and Traffic Park visits
Mere teaching of lessons will not be enough to instill practical and effective knowledge on traffic rules. As a matter of fact, road safety games, mock traffic drills, and visit to nearby Traffic Parks can fill this void. Ordinarily, children will receive hands-on experience in real life scenario to further strengthen their knowledge of traffic rules.
3. First Aid lessons and volunteer assistance
Schools can also make it mandatory for the students to learn basic first aid lessons in case of accidents so that lives can be saved and injuries can be minimal. As a result, elder children can be volunteered for managing traffic near the school vicinity during rush hours along with police personnel.
4. Seek public and Government support in ensuring road safety for children.
School authorities can approach governmental agencies like traffic police personnel for ensuring road safety for children near the schools during the peak traffic times. In fact, public support can also be sought to ensure road safety for children.
5. Request Traffic Department for installing traffic signs and symbols near school vicinity
School management can also request the traffic department for installing traffic signs and symbols at the vicinity of the school considering the safety of the kids. At the same time, they can also seek assistance of a traffic police personnel near the school for the kids to cross the road safely.
5. Provide RFID tags to all children
RFID technology can be incorporated into the identity cards of children for better monitoring of kids inside the school premises as well as during their journey to school. As a consequence, the RFID tags can be read with a scanner unit installed in the buses, which then sends the data to the parents or educators.
6. Install GPS trackers in school transportation vehicles
The RFID tags will not be fully effective if the parents /educators cannot know the whereabouts of the school bus. Furthermore GPS trackers installed in school buses assists you to locate the position of the vehicle based on satellite data and transmit the same for public awareness. The data can be read with the support of a GPS enabled Smartphone
7. Develop and offer Smartphone based apps or PUSH notifications to parents and educators on the whereabouts of children
Specific apps catering to the parents/educators on road safety for children can be developed and implemented. PUSH notifications can be advantageous when parents do not prefer app installation and data usage. However, the PUSH mail services share the information via SMS and do not require specific apps.
8. Create societal awareness on the need to provide our children safer roads to travel
All the efforts by Governmental agencies, school authorities, and parents will be effective only if public participation is ensured. There should be focus-driven drives for creating awareness on road safety for children by all these nodal agencies at regular intervals. Similar to the enforcement of other rules, there should be a dedicated effort to safeguard the children on the roads. Meanwhile, pamphlets, awareness drives, FM ads, billboards, etc. can meet the goal if properly implemented.
9. Parental monitoring
Parental monitoring will be the only option available to ensure child road safety when the children walk or resort to private modes of transport to reach school.