You can’t avoid using the road to go about various activities. Therefore, you need to have tips and techniques to protect you from accidents. Whether you are driving, being driven or walking along the road, you have the responsibility to keep yourself safe. You also must ensure other road users are safe and your recklessness doesn’t cause them to have an accident.
When you step out of the house or office to get a ride to town or even take a walk, it is important to let someone know. This way, if you take longer than you had intended, your loved ones can know the places to look for you. You should also make a habit of carrying some documents such as your ID card or anything that can enable even a stranger to know where to locate your people in case of a problem.
If you are walking along the road, don’t make the mistake to assuming the driver of the car behind you is seeing you. To stay safe, assume you are not visible and behave accordingly. Always remember to face traffic. It will be easier for you to see an oncoming vehicle than it would with a car behind you. plus, the driver can see you more clearly as well.
Road safety rules you should teach your children
It is the responsibility of a parent or guardian to keep the children safe on the road. However, this can be quiet tricky because you are not with them all the time. While you keep them safe at home, the teacher keeps them safe at the school. So, the question is, who is going to keep them safe on the roads? Besides, even if you drive your kids to school or other places, it is also important know how to keep them safe.
Unfortunately, kids are not like adults. They are not mature enough to know the dos and the don’ts of using the road safely. The chances of children putting themselves at risk while on the road if they don’t have the proper road safety knowledge are pretty high. In fact, adult supervision is paramount when it comes to kids’ safety in cars or walking on the road.
To ensure safety of your beloved children, familiarize yourself with the most essential road safety tips for kids. You might just save lives.
Buckle up
If you are going on a road trip with your children, teach them the importance of using a car seat. Make sure your child is secured in a car seat before you heat the road. You should also teach them to stay safe even when they are in a moving vehicle without your presence. Your child should be aware that is dangerous to stand or move around inside a moving vehicle. Kids sometimes think it is cool to play inside a moving school bus. You should also teach your child to never put any part of their body such as the hands or the head outside the car windows.
Use child lock
The child lock feature in a car is meant to prevent your child from opening the car doors without your knowledge. When you use it, you are guaranteed your child will not open the door while you are driving. Kids sometimes become excited and can be tempted to open the door immediately you stop without considering if where you have parked the car is safe. Teach them to stay calm even if they are excited to get to a place or meet someone.
Have a discussion
Make it a habit to discuss road safety regulations with your children. Whenever you have time, teach them about these rules practically. You can even take them for a walk and teach them how to use traffic lights, road signs, zebra crossings and crossing bridges.
The most important thing here is to make the lessons interesting and fun so that they can pay attention to what you are talking about. You can even arrange with other parents and organize a fun day whose motive is to teach your kids road safety. While insisting about being cautious on the road, be careful on how you explain it. Children have active imagination and might end up exaggerating what you tell them. The idea here is to ensure they are safe on the road without scaring their little hearts out.
Don’t leave your kids alone
Parents or caregivers should never have a reason to leave kids inside their cars. This can expose your kids to big risks. For example, your child may suffer from hypothermia. A condition where body overheats especially in warm temperatures.
Avoid speeding
You all know the dangers of speeding. Just to emphasize, speeding can be incredibly dangerous and sometimes cause an accident involving one car or more. Speeding increases the possibility of getting involved in an accident that can leave you disabled for the rest of your life. When you are speeding, your ability and time to avoid an object on the road is extremely shortened. Please, don’t be the one to kill or incapacitate your children. Take care.
Lead by example
If your children are going to heed your advice, then they must see you practice what you teach them first. When you tell them to stay calm and don’t rush while on the road, exhibit that patience while driving. When you are going to place, leave early enough to avoid rush driving. This will teach your kids the importance of preparing early to catch the school bus instead of running for the school bus.
Use of mobile phone
A cell phone is a great communication tool and can be life-saving if used appropriately. However, if you use it while driving, it distracts your attention on the road. A driver is prone to have an accident if using a mobile phone and driving at the same time. Not only is a mobile phone life threatening to use while driving even other gadgets that draw your attention away from the road such as headphones and iPods can still be the cause of you and your kids untimely death. If you compare the dangers involved with the use of a cell phone when driving, it will not harm to keep your phone away until you arrive in your destination.
