Here in Indiana and Illinois, we are in the beginning of another school year. In fact, some Hoosier kids have been going back to class for several weeks already: the Beech Grove City Schools started on July 26, 2018.
Risk of School Pedestrian Fatalities
For those advocating for child accident victims, this time of year waves a red flag. Why? There is a real concern that a youngster is going to suffer serious or deadly injuries while walking or biking to (or from) school.
Statistics show that 3 children die each day in traffic accidents in this country, and 25% of those fatalities involve kids who were walking or riding a bike.
Pedestrian accidents involving a child on foot or riding a bicycle are often fatal, no matter how slow the motor vehicle may be going at the time of the crash. The disparity between the weight and size of the car, truck, SUV, or minivan, and the child victim often leads to a deadly impact.
Encouraging Kids to Walk to School
Nationally, many believe in the benefits of children walking to school. For instance, there is a National Walk to School Day held each October, with the goal of getting more kids walking to school each day.
Why the arguments for kids walking to school when there is a danger of a serious or fatal motor vehicle accident?
- Health Benefits
Proponents of children walking to and from school argue that it will make kids healthier. Walking to school and back home again means that the child automatically integrates daily exercise into their day.
For children, daily physical activity means better health: bones, muscles, and joints all profit from the effort, as well as the added bonus of higher caloric consumption benefits. Proponents of kids walking to school reference federal government (HHS) recommendations that kids have at least one hour of physical activity each day.
- Environmental Benefits
The benefit of increased activity for the child is not the only reason that many advocate for more child pedestrians on our streets each school day. They also argue that it means a reduction in air pollution because less vehicle emissions will be released into the environment, citing federal government (EPA) warnings of ozone, nitrogen oxide, dust, soot, smoke, and dirt as air pollutants.
Different Dangers Face Today’s Child Pedestrians
Walking to school does have a health benefit, of course, and there’s also the idea that less traffic on the roads does help our communities. However, today’s children do not face the same threats that their parents or grandparents did during their school days.
Children walking to school today will face unprecedented dangers from the traffic they will encounter on their route to school, and back home. Consider the realities of increased distracted driving as well as the epidemic levels of impaired drivers on the roads of Indiana and Illinois today.
For details, see:
- 2017 Distracted Driving Awareness: Danger in Indiana and Illinois
- Employer Liability for Distracted Driving Accidents in Indiana or Illinois
- Marijuana Accidents: Impaired Driving in Indiana and Illinois
- Dangers of Drug-Impaired Driving Accidents in Indiana and Illinois.
State Safe Routes to School Programs in Indiana and Illinois
Both Indiana and Illinois recognize the risk that today’s children face when walking to/from school each day. Both states are participating in a federal program entitled “Safe Routes to School” (SRTS) which provides federal funding to each state’s Department of Transportation.
Read the Indiana Safe Routes to School Guidebook here.
Read the Illinois Safe Routes to School Program Guidelines here.
SRTS works to improve the safety conditions facing kids in Illinois and Indiana who are walking or riding their bike to or from school. The program has three goals:
- To enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school;
- To make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age; and
- To facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity (within 2 miles) of primary and middle schools (grades K-8).
This means there are federal funds being provided to help change the risks facing kids who walk to school by doing things like building walkways and crosswalks; adding more traffic lights at intersections; and encouraging police to monitor traffic near schools during those times where the kids are most likely walking to be on the neighborhood streets.
Applications for funding must be made by the local government (e.g., municipality). Most of the Indiana SRTS funds (90%) are earmarked for infrastructure projects.
Will Changing Infrastructure Change the Risk of Fatal Child Pedestrian Accidents?
In another study focusing on teenagers who are involved in pedestrian accidents while walking to or from school, researchers discovered another key factor here: the distraction of the child while walking.
Research has shown that walking while distracted by technology, like a phone or headphones, is common for teens ages 12-19 and is an important factor in many pedestrian injuries. Increases in mobile device ownership and the many things they can be used for, like texting, music, social media and gaming, mean that teens are using their devices more and more, and this may be impacting distracted walking levels and contributing to the increase in pedestrian injuries for this age group.
Personal Injury Claims after Child Pedestrian Accidents To or From School
For those representing minors who have been seriously injured or killed while walking (or riding their bike) to or from school, these are preventable accidents that tragically alter the lives of their victims as well as the victim’s loved ones (parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.).
While altering school zones with increased crosswalks or hiring more crossing guards seems like a laudable effort, the horror in many of these fatal child pedestrian accidents involves distracted driving as well as drivers who are speeding or who are impaired behind the wheel.
Children who are hit by a motor vehicle while walking or riding a bike often suffer serious bodily injuries from the impact. The force of the crash can result in paralysis or death due to a traumatic brain injury or a spinal cord injury. Parents who allow their child to walk to school need to be aware of the risks.
In our next post, we will discuss more about the threats facing child pedestrians and those injured in motor vehicle accidents while walking to or from school. Please be careful out there!
