Walking to school safely should be kids’ first lesson

Morning commuters who begin their drives in quiet neighborhoods should be mindful of the fact that they’re sharing the streets with young people navigating their way to school. However, alert drivers are only one component of the safety equation — children and their caregivers as well as the schools themselves all share in the enormous responsibility for safety.

Today marks International Walk to School Day which serves as a valuable reminder that it takes more than a warm jacket and sturdy backpack for a child to be properly equipped for the journey to school. Students, especially young ones, also need safety instruction and a hand to hold throughout this important educational process.

Prevention of unintentional injury — the number one cause of death for children under the age of 14 — is the goal of the Safe Kids Coalition, a national organization with an active chapter here in Snohomish County. Since elementary school children between the ages of five and nine are at the highest risk for pedestrian related injuries, local representatives from Safe Kids will pilot a walk to school program this morning at Marshall Elementary in Marysville in conjunction with the Marshall PTSA. The Safe Kids Walk This Way Campaign will team parents, students and teachers with volunteers from Safe Kids and program sponsors 3M and FedEx Express. Together they’ll conduct walkabilty checks to examine potential hazards along the various routes children take to the school and collect data to send off for evaluation. At a follow-up assembly, prizes will be awarded and the educational process reinforced.

According to coalition co-coordinators Shannon Wilner and Mary Wahl, "Safe Kids goal is to make parents and the community as a whole more aware of the hazards children face, and to work together to fix these problems so that children can walk to school or anywhere in their neighborhood safely."

The following injury prevention tips are courtesy of the National Safe Kids Campaign:

n Never allow children under age 10 to cross streets alone. Children need to be old enough to develop the skills to cross streets safely.

n Always model and teach proper pedestrian behavior.

n Instruct children to look left, right and left again when crossing the street and to continue looking as they cross.

n Children should never run across the street or dart from between parked cars.

n Require children to wear retro-reflective materials and carry a flashlight at dawn, at dusk and in bad weather.

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