Pedestrian Safety for Pre-teens and Teens On The Way

Whether walking to a friend’s house, to school or around town, children need to know how to navigate streets safely. Because a child’s size and cognitive ability are constantly developing, in addition to environmental risks like speeding motorists, there are many hazards that can cause accidents and injuries. Help reduce your children’s risk of harm by modeling and teaching safe pedestrian behavior.

Top Tips

Teach safe behaviors:

Make sure children look left, right and left again before crossing the street. Cross when the street is clear, and keep looking both ways while crossing. Walk, don't run.

Teach children and make sure they understand and obey traffic signals and signs.

Practice safe behaviors:

Walk facing traffic, on sidewalks or paths.

Require children to carry a flashlight at night, dawn and dusk. Add retroreflective materials to children’s clothing.

Don't let kids play in driveways, unfenced yards, streets or parking lots.

Make sure your children take the same route to common destinations (such as school) every time. Walk with your child to find the safest path. Look for the most direct route with the fewest street crossings.

Safety Tools

There are many tools that parents can use to help to keep children safe from injuries. Many of them are affordable and can be found at many stores.

What you'll need:

Retroreflective stickers

Pedestrian Safety for Pre-teens and Teens On The Way

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