Traffic safety of children
Overview
Background & policy context:
This study aims to safety of children in relation to traffic.
Objectives:
This study analysis traffic safety/danger of children. It presents recommendations for improvements and/or issues which need to be further studied.
The children are divided into three age groups: 0-5, 6-11 and 12-14 years. This age classification follows roughly speaking the three most important phases in the life of children concerning traffic participation: the first six years in which traffic participation is mainly not individual, then the period of the primary education in which individual traffic participation is learned and is practised, and the period of the continued education, in which children take part individual in the traffic participation. The limit of up to 15 years has been introduced because then traffic unsafety of children strongly increases, not in the last least because children then start with using mopeds and scooters.
Methodology:
This study into the road safety of children uses different types of data.
- In the first place crash data is used of the size, nature, and development of children's safety in the period 1984-2005; here a distinction is made between fatalities and in-patients. Specific attention is paid to the crash characteristics for the period 2001-2005.
- Secondly, mobility and population data is used to explain the found differences in safety.
- The third source, a literature study, yields the characteristics of the child's different development phases that are relevant for their traffic behaviour. A survey of existing and intended measures for the improvement of children's safety in traffic is based on this literature.
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