Izzy’s road safety tips for kids

02 Nov 2018

Making sure that your children are safe at all times is difficult, especially when you are not always with them. You don't want to be overwhelming your kids with too much information regarding road rules but you certainly don't want to leave any stone unturned. Here are five basic road rules that our Smart Steps road safety mascot, Izzy, believes all children should know.

Helmets

Children should be wearing a helmet every time they ride on anything with wheels including bikes, scooters, skateboards, roller blades, rip sticks & hoverboards. Your child should be following the below steps every time they wear a helmet:

• Your helmet must always be positioned appropriately which means you should be able to fit only two fingers between your eyebrows and the helmet.
• Your chin straps must be tight against your chin, again you can use two fingers as a measure of how far your helmet strap should be from your chin.
• Make sure a grown-up always checks your helmet fits correctly before you ride.

Sidewalks

You should be using the sidewalk when walking or riding at all times, it does not matter whether it is a busy road or not. If you are riding a bike you should always be getting off and walking when crossing the road.

Seatbelts

When travelling in a car you should always be in a car seat or wearing a seatbelt. Some other simple steps you should always follow are:

• You should never be standing inside a moving vehicle.
• When riding on a school bus you should be seated and holding onto the rail until it is time to get off.
• At no point while you are in a vehicle should any part of your body be outside of the vehicle.

Safety Door

When you are getting out of the car or the school bus you should always use the safety door. The safety door is the door that is closest to the curb.

Stop, Look, Listen and Think

Any time you are crossing the road you should Stop, Look, Listen and Think before crossing. You should always use a pedestrian crossing but if there is no pedestrian crossing available you should follow the below rules:

• Make sure you look at both sides of the road before crossing and only cross if they are no vehicles approaching.
• Never cross at bends in the road.
• Never cross between stationary vehicles.
• You should always be accompanied by an adult when crossing the street.

The Smart Steps road safety program makes learning about road safety a fun experience for children. This is the best way to ensure they are paying attention and that the learning stays with them. The safety program uses a variety of resources such as songs, storybooks and games to enhance the messages. Click here to learn more about this amazing program!