Child Pedestrian Safety: Study of Street-Crossing Behaviour of Primary School Children with Adult Supervision

Abstract

Road traffic accidents are the primary cause of injuries and fatalities among children. The current study focuses on children’s (un)safe crossing behaviour in a real traffic situation accompanied by an adult at a crosswalk in front of their school. The study aims to investigate if there are differences in crossing behaviour related to road infrastructure (i.e., one-way and two-way street, elevated and non-elevated street crossing), the gender of the child, and the effect of the accompanying adult’s behaviour on the child’s crossing behaviour. Primary school children from two urban schools in Flanders (Belgium) were observed for three days while crossing the street in front of their school in the morning and afternoon. A total of 241 child–adult pairs were observed. Descriptive analysis, Pearson chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression models were used to find differences between groups. More than half of the crossings exhibited two or more unsafe behaviours. Not stopping at the curb before crossing was the most unsafe behaviour, exhibited by 47.7% of children; not looking for oncoming traffic before and during the crossing was the second most unsafe behaviour, exhibited by 39.4% of the children. The only difference between boys’ and girls’ crossing behaviour was in stopping at the curb with girls 1.901 times more likely to stop before crossing as compared to boys. Adults holding hands of the child resulted in safer behaviours by children. The children not holding hands displayed significantly riskier behaviour in running or hopping while crossing the street and being distracted. The study reinforces the need to improve the transportation system through infrastructural interventions (elevated crosswalks), as well as educating and training children and the parents on safe crossing behaviour in traffic.