The Facts

This page includes facts, history, information and research relating to School Crossing Patrols

One child is hurt on UK roads every 16 minutes.

Child casualties:

• 11 children are killed or seriously injured every day on UK roads. 
• 75 children are killed or seriously injured every week on UK roads. 
• 7 child pedestrians are killed or seriously injured every day on UK roads. 
• 47 child pedestrians are killed or seriously injured every week 6 per day. 
• 60% of children killed or seriously injured on UK roads are on foot. 

Source: Brake.org.uk Road Safety

Dorset County Council's Saving

1. The total gross Dorset County Budget for 2010/11 is £650m therefore the saving of £200,000 that they propose to make by cutting the School Crossing Patrols is 0.03% of the whole budget.
2. DCC and West Dorset District want to spend £50m on the new council offices and library. I understand that the annual repayments of the loan will be £200,000 for next 25 yrs!
3. The cost of a fatality on our roads is over £1,000,000 in public services.
4. DCC will be imposing their cuts, other county councils have consulted the public about where the cuts should be made, why don't DCC talk to the people who elected them?

History of School Crossing Patrols
Britain's first Crossing Patrol, Mrs Hunt, was appointed by Bath City council, helping children cross roads outside Kingsmead school.

Since then, experimental crossing patrols appeared in London throughout the 1940s until they were formally recognised by the 1953 School Crossing Patrols Act and began operating around the country, in order to reduce the number of children in road accidents. This was followed on 1st July 1954 with the School Crossing Patrol Order which allowed local councils to provide the SCPs. However it was never made compulsory for the authorities to provide the service.
Sources: Cardiff Council, Bedford Borough council

National Survey of Road Safety

A national survey of more than 15,000 children being launched for Road Safety Week by Brake and insurance company QBE has found that almost nine in 10 (86%) think drivers go too fast around their homes and schools. Shockingly, one in 10 children (10%) say they have been knocked down while walking or cycling, and a further one in 6 (17%) have come close to being knocked down.
In 2009, 195 children were killed and 4,188 were seriously injured on UK roads - accounting for 12 deaths and serious injuries among under-18s every day. 59% of these deaths and injuries were children on foot or bicycle.  Although the UK has the second lowest road death rate in the EU, its child pedestrian death rate per population is worse than 10 other EU countries, and eight times higher than Sweden's.

Research: Traffic at 30 mph is too fast for children’s visual abilities, scientists reveal
from the road safety charity Brake (click here to view source), November 2010:

A study by researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London reveals that primary school children cannot accurately judge the speed of vehicles travelling faster than 20 mph.
The researchers measured the perceptual acuity of more than 100 children in primary schools, and calculated the speed of approach that they could reliably detect. The results suggest that while adult pedestrians can make accurate judgments for vehicles travelling up to 50mph, children of primary school age become unreliable once the approach speed goes above 20mph, if the car is five seconds away. Professor John Wann, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, who led the research, says: “This is not a matter of children not paying attention, but a problem related to low-level visual detection mechanisms, so even when children are paying very close attention they may fail to detect a fast approaching vehicle.”