Children in East march for safer roads
They want to raise awareness outside their school gates
Last updated 16th Jun 2021
Around 1,500 kids from across the East of England will take to the streets around their schools on Wednesday 16 June to raise awareness of the 31 children who are killed or injured on the region's roads every week.
The children, aged between four and 11, are among more than 50,000 across the UK who are taking part in Brake's Kids Walk with Shaun the Sheep. The national project, run by road safety charity Brake in partnership with insurance company esure, sees Shaun and his flock help youngsters learn key road safety messages and call on their grown-ups to make roads safer, so more children can enjoy the health and planet-saving benefits of walking, cycling or scooting to school.
To coincide with the launch of the walk, Brake has highlighted the true extent of child casualties on the region's roads.
Latest available Department for Transport (DfT) figures1 for 2019 show 1,492 children were killed or injured on East of England roads in 2019. This figure indicates a continuing modest decline in road casualties, to the lowest level recorded in the past five years, down 8% from 1,629 in 2015.
Across the region, the greatest number of casualties in 2019 occurred in Essex, which recorded 305 children killed or injured. This figure was the same as the previous year.
Norfolk, Southend-on-Sea and Suffolk have all seen a rise in child road casualties compared with figures from the previous year, rising 13%, 20% and 22% respectively. Suffolk's 223 casualties are the highest recorded in the last five years, a tragic increase of 33% from 167 in 2015.
Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire have continued to reduce the number of child casualties on their roads over the past five years. 125 children were killed or injured on Cambridgeshire roads in 2019, a fall of 31% compared to 2017, while Hertfordshire also recorded their lowest figure in five years, with 251 deaths and injuries to children, a reduction of 27% compared to 2015 (345).
The lowest numbers of child road casualties in the East of England in 2017 were seen in Thurrock (42) and Southend-on-Sea (43). By comparison, Norfolk, Suffolk and Hertfordshire all recorded more than 200 casualties, and Essex recorded more than 300.
Schools and nurseries from the region are joining the nationwide campaign, calling for five key measures to enable children to make safe and healthy journeys: footpaths, cycle paths, safe places to cross, slow traffic and clean traffic.
Short, supervised walks are taking place on the 16th June at or around schools and nurseries. Children will walk in a crocodile formation and hold hands to highlight the importance of being able to walk without fear or threat from traffic.
Schools can also run special road-safety-themed assemblies, lessons and fun activities, using free resources from Brake and featuring Shaun the Sheep and his friends. Resources are available to any parent, carer or teacher to download for free at www.brake.org.uk/kidswalk. The event can also be used to fundraise for Brake, which supports families who have lost loved ones in road crashes.