Safety and Social Skills

Be Safe
Inside and outside the classroom

Be Safe, Be Seen: Safety Tips for Child Pedestrians
(ARA) – Millions of kids bike or walk to school each day. In an effort to increase safety and visibility, the National Center for Safe Routes to School and Lands’ End are offering safety tips to help little pedestrians be seen and safe.

Choose Safe Routes – Select places with sidewalks or paths separate from traffic if possible. Limit the number of street crossings and avoid crossing busy or high-speed roads.

Review Safety Rules:

* Even when adults are looking, always look for cars.

* Stop at the curb and look left, right and left again for traffic.

* Keep looking for traffic until completely across the street.

* When crossing the street at an intersection, obey traffic signs and signals and remember to look for oncoming cars.

* Walk, don’t run across the street.

Be Seen – Wear bright colors, use retro-reflective materials and tap into the latest safety technology.

* Wear White – A pedestrian wearing white can be seen from 180 feet away at night.

* Retro-Reflective Gear – Kids wearing retro-reflective gear can be seen by motorists up to 500 feet away at night.

* Cool Blue Technology – Lands’ End is offering a line of kids’ backpacks and coats with the latest “Cool Blue” electroluminescent safety technology. Cool Blue enables kids to be seen in the dark up to 1,000 feet away, the equivalent of three football fields. Based on technology used by the United States Air Force, Lands’ End’s exclusive Cool Blue products feature electroluminescent light – one of the most visible types of light in darkness and bad weather conditions. Cool Blue is comprised of millions of separate “dots” of cool, blue light that penetrates darkness, fog, smoke, rain and snow, providing superior visibility in low-light conditions. For more information, visit Landsend.com.

* Go in Groups – Encourage children to walk in groups with adults. Young children always need an adult to walk with them. Remember, it will be easier for a motorist to see a group rather than an individual child.

About International Walk to School Day

In the United States, International Walk to School Day is expected to include 5,000 schools from all 50 states. On October 4, 2006, walkers from the United States will join children and adults in 40 countries around the world.

Walk to School events work to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance of issues such as increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion, concern for the environment and building connections among families, schools and the broader community. For more information, please visit www.walktoschool.org.

The National Center for Safe Routes to School serves as the national coordinating agency for Walk to School activities in the United States. For more information, please visit www.saferoutesinfo.org.
Courtesy of ARA Content