Car and Road

Around the world, close to 3,400 people, including more than 500 children, die on and around roads each day and many more are injured or disabled. In the spirit of World Day of Remembrance, we are asking everyone to remember Christina, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, who was struck and killed by a car on October 31, 2012. Christina’s mom, Gwen Ward, is working hard to make sure we honor Christina’s memory by encouraging everyone to put their devices down and pay attention when they cross the street.

Every October, schools across the globe celebrate International Walk to School Day. Safe Kids is teaming up with FedEx for the 15th year to host events on October 8 that will teach children how to walk to school safely. In honor of these great events, we’ve developed some information for you and your family to use to help your kids stay safe while walking. It only takes a few minutes today, on International Walk to School Day, or any day throughout the year, to teach your kids how to walk safely.

My favorite thing to do while walking by myself was listening to music. I love music. As a child, I was always singing and being scolded by my Aunt Joyce for humming at inappropriate times. But music is soothing to me; it makes me feel happy, playful and, at times, sad. Listening to music and walking seemed, to me, a harmless combination. Needless to say, I soon found out the danger of it.

If there is one thing I know about myself, it’s that I am not the most coordinated person. I know this because I ran cross-country in high school, and I still have the scars to prove it. Even the smallest branch or bump in the road used to be enough to bring me tumbling to the ground in spectacular fashion.

This tradition of tumbling continued when I left for college and became a tour guide. If you have ever been on a tour of a college campus, you can imagine that it is not the best job for the uncoordinated. Leading the tours required me to walk backwards in front of large groups of people. On my very first tour as a freshly-minted guide, I ran into no less than five tree branches and several innocent bystanders, not to mention nearly being struck by a passing car.