Walking safely to school for the Big Walk and Wheel

This week is part of active travel charity Sustrans’ ‘Big Walk and Wheel’ event, encouraging schoolchildren to make journeys to school by cycling, walking, wheeling and scootering.

Over 900,000 students are now taking part, and over 1.7 million journeys have been recorded. At Novum Law, we fully support children and adults travelling safely and sustainably to promote good health for everyone and to protect the environment.

As a specialist personal injury law firm, we see first-hand the life-changing consequences of unsafe journeys when we help and support victims of road traffic accidents, cycling accidents, and e-scooter accidents.

We know that even something as seemingly simple as walking to school can be dangerous for children, and hope that the Big Walk and Wheel promoting active travel will be a step towards safer active travel in every community.

Top safety tips for walking to school

Unfortunately, the number of students (particularly primary school pupils) walking to school has fallen in recent years, in part because of fears around safety.

Sustrans has put together some top tips about how parents or responsible adults can teach children to walk to school safely and with confidence. These include:

• Talk to children about the traffic, cars, and safe crossing places you come across when you walk together, and ask questions about the size and speed of different vehicles to work out their perception.
• Set an example: stop, look, and listen; don’t use your phone near roads and don’t take risks.
• Practice walking safely to school or other locations (such as a friend’s house) together.
• Encourage children in your care to walk to school with local friends.
• Get children involved and thinking about safety by planning safe walking routes with you.

Rebecca Brisley from our Plymouth team is a specialist personal injury solicitor with years of experience supporting road traffic accident compensation claims and child injury compensation claims. She says:

“As a parent myself, I am extremely concerned about the dangers that children face on our roads as they travel to and from school.

“Initiatives like Sustrans’ Big Walk and Wheel are a positive step, encouraging children to be more active and promoting healthy habits, but school drop off and pick up times can be particularly dangerous for children. Areas around schools including school entrances and exits are often extremely busy and congested.

“Between 2017 and 2020, over 10,000 primary schoolchildren were hit by vehicles, which equates to 7 incidents a day. It’s important that children are aware of road safety, and it’s vital that other road users, including drivers, cyclists, motorcyclists and  e-scooter users, pay close attention to what’s going on around them, and don’t take risks that could end up harming a child.”

If your child has been injured walking to school in an accident that was not entirely their fault, you might be able to make a personal injury compensation claim on their behalf.

Our team of compassionate experts at Novum Law will support you and your child every step of the way, and have a strong track record of securing maximum compensation in child injury cases.

To find out more about how we can help you on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ basis, call our Freephone on 0800 884 0777, email info@novumlaw.com or complete our online enquiry form.