Since the early 1990s, road fatalities among children (0-14y) decreased sharply on European roads, and yet 386 children were killed in 2020 alone and more than 6000 have been killed over the last ten years. Traffic systems are not always designed in a manner, which allows safe participation of children in traffic. Furthermore, children are particularly vulnerable road users, which need to be protected. Children are still developing the cognitive and physical skills necessary to travel safely in traffic. Because of their small size, children are less visible than other road users and they are less experienced. They can easily become innocent victims in collisions, due to poor infrastructure, inappropriate speed limits or the unsafe traffic behaviour of others.

Furthermore, children travel more often as pedestrians or cyclists (vulnerable road users) compared with other age groups and their body shape requires the correct use of specific child-restraint-systems. Adults, and in particular parents or carers, have a key role in children's participation in traffic. The presented explorative study aims to provide insights into the road safety situation of children in Belgium. The focus is on the children’s behaviours (i.e., mobility and self-declared risky traffic behaviour) and children’s and parents’ perception of road safety (i.e., risk perception, safety feeling, acceptability of risky traffic behaviour, support for policy measures). By means of an online panel survey, parents and children were asked to fill in questionnaire.

The survey was conducted in July 2022 and assessed answers of 1669 respondents. The presentation will highlight key results of the study, such as: Children tend to perform better for the use of bicycle helmets than adults, but more frequently report the use of the mobile phone while cycling. Children rather accept unsafe pedestrian behaviour compared to unsafe cycling behaviour. Legal measures on child road safety are highly supported by parents. Mothers are more critical about the traffic safety situation of their child compared to fathers. The Safe System approach can help to increase the road safety of children. To improve the system all parts of the systems must improve: safter infrastructure, safer speeds (i.e., 30km/h in urban roads), safer vehicle technology (e.g., ISA, AEB), better use of protective equipment (e.g., bicycle-helmets, child-restraint-systems), consistent enforcement and adequate sanctions, traffic education and awareness-raising of other road users regarding the presence of children in traffic.

Keywords: Children, road safety, parents, behaviour, risk

Vias institute - Brussels - Brussels - Belgium