After a wonderful and long summer holiday, the first schools reopened their doors on Monday, 21 August. In practice, this means more traffic and, unfortunately, generally also a peak in accidents among cycling schoolchildren. The campaign, featuring the familiar blue banners, has been proven to have a positive effect on parents’ sense of safety in the school environment immediately after the summer holidays and is once again a visible reminder to motorists every year to adjust their speed in the vicinity of schools. The campaign naturally works both ways. Cars must not drive too fast, and children cycling must do so without using their phones. “The end of the summer holidays means more children and parents on the road. The children who are cycling a new route or who are going to school independently for the first time are especially vulnerable. Every year in August and September, both schoolchildren and their parents, as well as motorists, have to find the right balance on the road again. The ‘Our schools have started again’ campaign helps with that, so it is very good that it is back. It reminds motorists of the new situation, while at the same time teaching schoolchildren that road safety cannot be taken for granted. After all, we are all responsible for safe behaviour,” said Mark Harbers, Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management.
Improving road safety awareness by refreshing practical road safety knowledge
According to VVN, road safety is not the first thing people think about when they step outside. Yet this would benefit everyone’s safety in traffic, especially now that schools are reopening. To also draw children’s attention to safe participation in traffic after the summer holidays, VVN has introduced ‘Question of the day’: a free set of road safety questions for all primary school classes to refresh students’ road safety knowledge. The road safety questions can be downloaded here. Teachers can use the questions at the start of the day during the first week of lessons after the summer holidays, thereby starting a conversation with students about traffic. This refreshes the students’ road safety knowledge and makes them more aware of their role in traffic.
Parents, motorists and schoolchildren themselves have a role to play
VVN advises parents to practise the route frequently with their children. The more traffic experience young schoolchildren gain, the more safely they will navigate traffic. In this way, traffic education contributes to children’s independence in traffic.
Motorists can help cycling schoolchildren by avoiding school zones and the areas around schools. If this is genuinely not possible, VVN asks drivers to drive at an appropriate speed. Finally, VVN calls on schoolchildren and their parents to check bicycles for defects, so that children cycle to school on a safe bike.
Young cyclists bear the brunt
The peak in accidents among schoolchildren after the summer is still visible, but mainly among 11- and 12-year-olds. Among the schoolchildren in this age group who cycle to school, almost twice as many victims are recorded in the weeks after the summer holidays as in other months. In 2021, 6,700 children aged 8 to 14 were treated in an emergency department following a cycling accident. In almost two-thirds of cases, the victim sustained serious injuries (61%). Nearly one-quarter (23%) of cycling accidents took place in August and September combined (1,500).
Speeding is a major cause of many traffic accidents. It is estimated that one-third of all fatal accidents are directly or indirectly caused by excessive speed. According to the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV), reducing the speed of motorised traffic is therefore one of the most effective measures for improving the safety of schoolchildren in traffic. The campaign image consequently consists of a speedometer with schoolchildren hanging from it. The message: Our schools have started again. Adjust your speed.
No longer the norm
In addition to reducing speed, the Netherlands can also improve road safety by driving more often without distractions and without using mobile phones (MONO). According to VVN, using a smartphone in traffic is no longer the norm in our country, but it still happens too often. One-quarter (27%) of all motorists still use their smartphone in the car. Of these, 17% say they read messages or app messages while driving, and 10% even type messages in response. Around 5% pay less attention to traffic because they make calls with the phone held to their ear while driving. According to Veilig Verkeer Nederland, people’s social environments are increasingly disapproving of these risky actions.
Photo caption: 2022 Teacher of the Year Lennart van der Meulen starts ‘Question of the day’ in his Year 5/6 class.