28/08/2014

Parents Urged To Make Road Safety A Priority As Children Return To School

Parents preparing for their children's return to school have been urged to think about road safety.

Following the news that road deaths among children have doubled this year, Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, Alan Farrell, called on parents to make road safety a priority for their children.

"Twice as many children have died on the roads in the first eight months of the year as were lost in the whole of 2013. This means that road safety must become a priority when it comes to preparing children to go back to school," Deputy Farrell said.

Adding: "This message is particularly important for parents in the densely populated greater Dublin area as almost half of the children who were killed in the period from 1997 to 2012 were pedestrians. The Road Safety Authority also tells us that the peak time for children to be killed on the road is between 4pm and 6pm, just after school.

"The record for road safety among children had been improving for the past fifteen years but the latest figures indicate that we may be getting a little complacent. When it comes to children there is no room for error or distraction; they must be aware of safe behaviour and they must be following the practices of adults around them."

(MH)


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