30/09/2018

Looking after children on their way to school

After the Third International Child Road Safety Forum in Argentina, the National Road Safety Agency (ANSV) keeps working together with the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez to implement measures to protect children on their way to school. A report was made to contribute to the reduction of risks associated to child road accidents, focusing on children coming and going to school. The cities included were: Mendoza, Neuquén, Corrientes, San Salvador de Jujuy and Junín.

The report called “Safe transport to School and Safety in School Zones” included an observational study of child pedestrians in school zones. Risk behaviors and a road infrastructure study by Star Rating for Schools were considered. Star Rating for Schools was developed by the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) that rates safety in school zones from 1 to 5 stars.

This first research stage aims to carry out an exploratory assessment of safety and protection devices available to children in traffic; this is associated to their access to education and their right to learn. Regarding this aspect, the main challenge is the educational one, it becomes necessary to work with the children, their families, and the school community to improve and modify road safety behaviors.

Different activities will be conducted in the cities studied. Results will be presented and workshops will be implemented on specific road safety and child road safety challenges to be faced by each city. Relevant actions and stakeholders will be identified to improve the current situation. These presentations and workshops are part of the Fundación´s constant joint work with the ANSV since it took on the challenge, in 2016, of hosting the third FISEVI in Argentina in June this year. In these two years, the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez has cooperated with the ANSV through child mobility training and advisory services.

In 2017, the ANSV designed a National Child Road Safety Program including in its public policies one of the most vulnerable road users, and in January 2018 took another important step with the regulatory decree 32/2018 that amends the Road Safety Act 24,449 extending the use of the Child Restraint System (CRS) from 4 to 10 years of age.

The Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez is part of the Ministry of Transport Friends of the Safe and Sustainable Mobility Program that aims to join efforts and carry out actions to promote a change of paradigm regarding people´s mobility through environmental, social, and economic sustainable cultural changes promoting Road Safety best practices.

In Uruguay, the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez is working in coordination with Municipalities’ governments of Canelones and Montevideo, to visualize options for improving the road infrastructure of school zones to make them safer for children. And starting in October it will begin to provide Road Safety Workshops in schools for teachers, children and parents.

* Through the "Safe Latin American Children in Traffic" Program, the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez, with the support of the FIA Foundation, seeks to contribute to the reduction of risk factors associated to child road accidents, taking school surroundings as a starting point, by deepening knowledge about their current situation, and expanding the network at a regional level to cooperate in the creation of safe systems for children.