Over 40 percent of kids have experienced a ‘near miss’ on school journey, says survey

Parents think that traffic danger is greater than "stranger-danger". Well, I never!

About 100 children die violently at the hands of adults (excluding road deaths, note) every year. The number attributable to adult strangers is variable year by year because the numbers are so low - it averages about 4 or 5 a year. In other words, about 95 a year are killed by adults known to them - family members, "uncles", mum's boyfriends etc.

Curiously, the moving average for death by stranger has basically stayed constant for more than the last 5 decades. Children are at no more danger now from strangers than they were in the middle of the last century.

Certainly it is not that long ago that parents would have believed - incorrectly - that stranger danger has massively increased, but then the population at large massively overestimates all sorts of other "statistics" like how many immigrants live in the UK (32% perceived, about 13% real) how much of the welfare budget is lost to fraud (24% perceived, 0.7% real) etc. They probably get these impressions from the press, not necessarily by misreporting of the numbers, but by the over-emphasis on such cases. No question that a child killed by a stranger makes news while, sadly, a child killed by a stepfather doesn't unless the local social services can be blamed.

Probably, at least until quite recently, people would have driven their kids to school not because they fear traffic, but because they fear strangers, so traffic crept up on them unawares.

Now, just like the old saw "you are not STUCK in traffic, you ARE traffic", your child is endangered by your own behaviour.

How do you break that cycle?

think Allianze tv advert .... junior has feet on the passenger
headrest with tiger slippers on, mum looks around and
promptly drives the beemer straight off the road !!!! fast
forward to a school run and ... oh wait ... i'm not still watching
TV !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm lucky in that my kids' school has no car park and there is often a traffic warden nearby keen to ticket anyone parking on the pavement. Also I live in an area where most people are too poor to afford a car.

I would be interested to know by comparison how many kids had been involved in an accident or 'near miss' when travelling to and from school by car, I have a strong suspicion it would be about the same.

Sustrans and their outdated approach to cycling infrastructure is part of the problem.

What a lousy bit of research. Lies, damn lies, and statistics. 41%? Add them up and it comes to 31%, also how many of each are in both categories? This is Daily Mail journalism.

I'm part of a group comprising parents plus the heads of two primaries that has been badgering TfL to change a busy junction on the A23 in South London. The idea is simply to change it so that it's a box junction with a red light camera, not a big deal and not anything that'll impede traffic flow either, a factor TfL is highly aware of (quite the reverse probably).

There have been numerous near miss incidents, too many to count. There have been no fatalities (yet, but it's a matter of time) however some kids have been knocked down, luckily without serious injury so far. Vehicles regularly run the lights at the junction and both my kids have had close calls there.

TfL however doesn't seem to give a toss, claims it has no record of incidents and refuses to do anything. This is in spite of being shown numerous incident photographs taken by parents and staff, as well as now being given incident reports by the police. Sadly, it will probably take a fatality for TfL's approach to change.

How to improve the safety of children travelling to and from school? Hmmmm!
How about banning parents from delivering their children by car.

Think about it! Improved air quality, no illegal/dangerous parking (i.e. double parking, obstruction, near junctions, etc.) and less traffic on the roads (particularly near schools).

See if you recognise these scenarios. (I've limited myself to two, you can add more if you want to)
1) Mother arrives with precious cargo, parks two wheels on pavement, gets out leaving engine running, removes child from vehicle, kisses good-bye spends next twenty minutes talking to other parents (engine still running).
2) Mother arrives with some speed, 'abandons' vehicle, child exits, kiss blown, mother roars off at high speed.

Think I'm joking? Within a quarter of a mile of my house I have 1 pre-school, 2 junior schools, a senior school and a sixth form college. It's scary round here at times.

problems round my way seem to stem from parents parking on the pavement, causing other people's children to have to walk in the road. Brilliant.

*btw I can't let this go without a 'near miss' comment. It's either a miss, or a near hit. A near miss would be a hit, innit.

And the insane part, at school run time, any observer can see the problem is the school run, It isn't other commuters, or delivery trucks etc. The problem invariably goes away in the holidays, it is invariably worse on routes leading to schools.