There is no question that most people would say that children are one of the greatest treasures in life. Accordingly, parents and caretakers go out of their way to make sure they are kept safe on a regular basis. Because it is impossible for a parent or caretaker to be with a child all of the time there are situations where one has to hope that either others will look out for their child or the lessons passed along to a child will stick. One of the situations where that could arise is when children are crossing the street.
This subject is particularly relevant for caretakers in the state of Wisconsin since the organization Safe Kids Worldwide indicates that out of all of the months of the year, children walking are hit by more cars in the month of September.
A return to school likely has something to do with this. The new school year gets many children out walking to school, an activity they probably have not done for several months while on summer vacation. Until they become comfortable with the route and how to navigate it safely, that likely short walk can be dangerous.
Drivers of cars and buses are also often thrown off by the sudden increase in the number of children in areas surrounding a school. Here again it can be difficult for drivers to get used to constantly looking for the much smaller human beings.
Dressing children who are pedestrians, in bright clothes with reflective material on backpacks is one approach to keeping them safe. In addition, both pedestrians as well as drivers should avoid distracting activities that pull their attention away from their surroundings and follow the traffic laws.
While it is of course never desirable to be involved in a motor vehicle accident of any type, when a car hits a pedestrian, that person is often seriously hurt. Catastrophic injuries could even lead to death. The loss of life is tragic at any age but is often that much harder to deal with when it is a young person who is lost.
Following a pedestrian accident, it is not uncommon for expenses related to the incident to mount. In these situations it can be beneficial to work with a personal injury lawyer.
Source: Health Day, "More children hit by cars in September," Aug. 18, 2014