Pedestrian Safety Tips to Share With Your Children Before School Starts

With the beginning of a new school year quickly approaching, it is important to equip your children with essential safety knowledge that will help keep them safe. One notable area of concern regarding child safety is pedestrian safety, as many children walk to school or the bus stop. Here are some important pedestrian safety tips to share with your children in order to ensure they navigate their routes to school safely.

Look Both Ways Before Crossing

One of the fundamental rules of pedestrian safety is to look both ways before crossing the street. While a simple rule, if not enforced, the consequences can be devastating. Before crossing any crosswalk, teach your children to look left, right, and left again to check for any oncoming traffic. It is important to teach this rule early on so that it becomes a habitual behavior. Checking both ways before crossing the street will help keep your children aware of any potential hazards or obstacles. 

Make Eye Contact

The next important pedestrian safety tip to share with your children is to make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of vehicles. Emphasize to your children that although they may have the right of way, they must not assume that the driver sees them. Taking these steps can help prevent potential misunderstandings between your children and drivers that may lead to a pedestrian accident. 

Obey Traffic Signals

As the Burien pedestrian accident attorneys at Brumley Law Firm state, pedestrians are also responsible for their safety, which includes obeying right of way and crosswalk laws. Teach your children the various meanings of traffic signals, such as the “walk” and “do not walk” signals that indicate when it is safe to cross, as well as the countdown that indicates how much time they have left to cross.

Use Sidewalks and Walking Paths

The next thing to share with your children before school starts is the importance of using sidewalks and walking paths, if possible. You can share with your children that sidewalks are the safest places to walk and why it is dangerous to walk on the street. Explain to them that if there is no sidewalk available or no walking path, they should walk on the street facing oncoming traffic. 

Avoid Distractions

While electronic devices can be beneficial to give your children in the event of an emergency, it is vital that you teach your children the importance of putting devices, such as phones and tablets away while walking. This will help ensure that your children are fully aware of their surroundings and potential hazards. Additionally, make sure that your children do not wear headphones, as it is important that they can hear the sound of a vehicle approaching or an emergency vehicle’s sirens. 

Walk in Numbers

The final pedestrian safety tip that you can encourage your children to adopt is to walk in numbers. Walking with a group of other children helps to increase their visibility to drivers on the road. Children walking together can also help to remind each other to follow important safety rules such as looking both ways before crossing, making eye contact, obeying traffic signals, and avoiding distractions.