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The best way to keep your children safe when they are out and about is to ensure they know how to cross a road safely and have a good understanding of the Highway Code. Below we have provided key safety rules that you should follow yourself and teach to your children.

Road safety for children

Read through the rules below with your children to ensure they understand road safety. It is good to practice with them, so that when they are older and perhaps walking to school on their own, they will know how to get their safely.

• It is important to firstly plan your journey to make sure you know where you are going, leave your self plenty of time and inform your parent or guardian where you are going.
• If there is a pavement or footpath for you to walk on, use it.
• If there is not a pavement, you should walk on the right side of the road, facing the traffic. Take extra care.
• If you are with other people, walk single file around bends, at night or if there is a lot of road traffic.
• Take care when crossing cycle lanes on the road. Bicycles are not as noisy as other traffic and may be harder to spot.
• If you are looking after someone younger than you, always hold their hand when crossing the road.

How to cross a road safely

It is important that your children know how to cross a road safely. This is something that you will need to practice with them, so that they build up confidence in making safe decisions. You can read through the rules below with your children to help them get a better understanding of how to cross roads safely.

1. Find the safest place to cross
If there is a zebra, pelican or traffic light crossing, always use it. You can also rely on police officers, school crossing patrols (lollypop men and ladies) as well as traffic wardens to help you cross roads safely. If you cannot find a crossing nearby, make sure you stop in a place where you can see clearly a long the road, from all directions and that road users can see you.

2. Stop and look all around
Stand on the pavement, a little way back from the kerb, but so you can see if there are any vehicles coming. Give yourself plenty of time to look around.

3. Look and listen
Use your eyes and ears to look all around for traffic and listen. Sometimes you will be able to hear traffic before you can see it.

4. Wait until it is safe to cross
If traffic is coming, let is pass. Make sure there is a safe gap and that you have plenty of time to get to the other side, before you begin to cross.

5. Look and listen again
When it is safe to do so, walk straight across the road to get to the other side. Keep looking and listening as you do so. Always walk, never run.

Clothing for children

Here in the UK we get a lot of poor weather. To make your children more visible to road users, it is a good idea to ensure they are wearing bright clothing at night or in bad weather. Fluorescent materials will also be good for highlighting their presence in daylight and at dusk. Reflective materials will do the same, only at nighttime.

Child passengers in vehicles

When riding in a vehicle, the law says that seatbelts must be worn at all times. If your child is under the age of twelve and under 135cms in height, they should also use a child seat, designed for their size.

Rules for children:

• Do not block the driver’s view in the mirror.
• Make sure you do not distract the driver.
• Never lean or wave out of the window or throw anything out.
• Only open doors and windows when you have been told it is safe to do so.
• Always use the door on the pavement side of the car when getting out.