Archives

by Fathima Razik Cader

An important question that needs an answer is - "Why do schoolchildren meet with accidents all the time?"

Rene Wijegunaratne, Consultant on the subject of Road Traffic Education at SweRoad, the Swedish consultancy firm, who, with a wealth of experience in dealing with children, teachers and parents, as a teacher and subsequently as a school principal, has cited many reasons as to why children are accident prone.

She says that primarily, children are careless by nature, lack of awareness and have limitations, and parents in turn, also lack the necessary awareness, are less attentive in this regard and as adults, do not give children the attention and care they need on the road. She hastens to add, "It's not that they don't love their children, it's just that they take it for granted that children don't need to be told the do's and don'ts all the time on the road".

One frequently hears adults say 'children are children', referring to children behaving in a manner that is typically childish. In the process of development, children are bound to be carefree, have fantasies, are playful and lack a sense of danger. Their experiences in life are limited to their immediate environs and they are certainly not born with special instincts or skills essentials for safety whilst on the road. Neither can one expect them to understand the complexities of road traffic - a fact that even good and courteous drivers lament are mounting by the day, thanks to the increasing number of aggressive drivers on our roads. Studies

Studies have revealed that adults are inclined to equate children to their level (of thinking) and thereby expect them to behave rationally. This is one of the biggest mistakes and adult can make as research in this regard has proved.

First and foremost, children are much smaller in size and therefore cannot see traffic the way an adult can. Their vision can be marred by the crowds on the road, stationary vehicles and trees in addition to the continuous flow of traffic. Secondly, the lateral vision of a child under-8 years is limited to one-third and the lateral vision of a child between 8-10 years is limited to two-thirds, of an adult. Unless a child turns his head to the right or left he may not actually see a vehicle approaching him. The third point is the difficulty in determining sound origin.

This problem is aggravated by the fact that, generally, traffic is associated with sound - more so in this part of the world where drivers cannot drive without tooting the horn.

And is such situations, confusion is compounded and one might find a child has stepped on to the road, straight into an approaching vehicle, which results in an accident. Studies have also revealed that children, compared to adults, have limitations regarding mental and psychological development. Lack of concentration

This aspect or the lack of it needs to be identified and addressed, in order that a child whose skills in these areas need to be developed, is guided to achieve the required standards.

The fifth point is lack of concentration - so evident in children. Studies reveal that a child who stands at the pavement to cross the road may after a while, forget that he has been waiting for traffic to clear and dart across the road. The sixth point is that children are easily distracted. For example, a child whilst waiting to cross the road, may suddenly focus on something else that can attract his attention and then run towards whatever it is that attracts him, completely forgetting that he is running into danger.

The seventh point deals with the fact that children are, by nature, restless and impatient - so unlike adults. Children lack the patience to stand in one place for long and this is why one finds many instances, where even in the company of an adult, a child has stepped on to the road and has met with an accident. It has been proved for a child, even 2-3 minutes is a long time.

Another interesting point is that of abstract thinking - this means that children are unable to imagine or visualise beforehand, the consequences of an occurrence until it occurs.

Though the maxim 'the more mistakes one makes, the more one learns' is accepted, this cannot be applied to traffic on the road. The ninth point is the power of understanding with regard to a complex chain of events. An adult can comfortably carry a bag, hold an umbrella and perhaps eat an ice cream whilst crossing the road. A child cannot combine all these activities and comfortably cross the road.

Child feature

A feature so typical of a child is that he looks up to adults to protect him on the road. A child wanting to cross the road might expect the adult behind the wheel to notice him and thereby let him cross the road. The child sees the vehicle and the driver but not all drivers see the small figure waiting to cross the road. Another point is the importance of children being able to detect traffic.

This means a child has to develop skills towards selective attention, visual search, not get distracted, co-ordination of visual and audio messages and information and judging the degree of safety or danger. A tall order indeed! Studies reveal that a child under 10 years cannot master such skills so as to ensure his safety on the road.

"Visual Timing" also needs to be judged. This means to determine the direction of the approaching vehicle and the time it should take to reach a point, which would help one assess if it is safe to cross the road at that point or not.

As a rider to this - judging the distance when vehicles are approaching from two or more direction can be a very complicating exercise as it tests one's ability to divide attention, retain to memory, co-ordinate and integrate the visual messages prior to crossing the road.

The final point in this study emphasises the importance of coordinating the time available to cross the road with the time required to cross the road. The decision that a child has to take in this respect will be one that is difficult for him, considering the complexity of the situation. Often one sees even an adult hesitating - pondering whether he should cross the road or not.

Salient points

To reiterate some other salient points - viz: lack of awareness on the part of the parents, lack of attention by parents towards their children and the lack of regard drivers have towards children on the road, it needs the concerted effort of the public along with the National Road Safety Secretariat of the Ministry of Transport, Highways and civil Aviation and the Police amongst other relevant departments to work as a group to achieve the desired results - that of preventing road accidents involving schoolchildren.

The 'icing on the cake' however, is the input by SweRoad, the Swedish consultancy firm, which specialises in the field of road transport worldwide. SweRoad has taken cognizance of the fact that Sri Lanka desperately needs to protect its schoolchildren from the horrendous accidents that take place almost daily.

And this has led to a tremendous amount of time and resources spent to identify the causes that lead to accidents by going into the minutest detail, towards preventing and wherever possible, eliminating them, in the future. This is no easy task but SweRoad is up to it with a determination and commitment that needs to be mentioned.

Are we going to grab the opportunity that has come our way and promote traffic education for schoolchildren? For if we do, schoolchildren will stand to benefit in no uncertain terms as their precious lives will be saved, in no small measure.

This will then ensure that Sri Lanka's future generation will lead by example on how to conduct themselves in the road - and example that's set to be followed by generations to come. (To be continued)

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager