Road safety charity reveals 53 children harmed on Lincolnshire roads in a year

This is the highest figure in the region where overall 260 children aged 0–7 were harmed on East Midlands roads in 2022. That includes two children who died and 55 who received serious injuries.

The figures are released annually by road safety charity, Brake, which says in their latest campaign that 3,402 children aged seven and under were killed or injured on roads in Britain in 2022 – that includes 20 children who died and 552 who suffered serious injuries. On average, nine young children were being harmed on our roads every single day.

Today (Wednesday), more than 200,000 children aged two to seven are taking part in Beep Beep! Day with Brake.

Across the UK, 4,000 schools, nurseries and childminders have signed up to get involved and share important road safety messages with young children and their parents and carers. In the East Midlands, 183 educators have signed up to take part, representing more than 7,700 young children.

The released data also shows that in 2022, 1,943 children aged seven or under were killed or injured while travelling by car, 1,157 while walking and 110 while cycling.

The child casualty figures have also been broken down region by region, county by county.

Beep Beep! Days focus on three simple things to help young children be safer near roads – holding hands with a grown up when walking, crossing roads at safe places and always using a child seat when travelling by car. They also send an important reminder to everyone to use roads safely to protect all road users, but especially young children who are so vulnerable on roads.

Brake recently polled more than 120 parents and carers of children aged seven or under to understand behaviours and concerns they may have about their children’s journeys. When asked about how their children travel to school on a typical day, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) said they walk, wheel or scoot, while less than one-third (28 per cent) said they mainly travel by car. (The rest chose other modes of transport.)

Almost half (46 per cent) of parents polled do not always hold their child’s hand when walking near roads or crossing roads, and 10 per cent said that for short journeys they might let their child travel in a car without using a child seat. When asked what factors would encourage them to walk or cycle more with their children, a quarter (24 per cent) said safe pavements, footpaths and crossing places. Parents said they needed slower traffic to make roads safer in their local community.

Brake has run Beep Beep! Days for 20 years.

Everyone who signs up to take part in a Beep Beep! Day receives an action pack of teaching resources that includes activities to help children learn about road safety, plus important messages to send home to parents and carers, all illustrated with characters from Aardman’s popular children’s TV programme Timmy Time. This year, Brake was able to fund and dispatch 1,650 printed packs to schools, nurseries and childminders all over the UK, with further free resources available to anyone who signs up at www.brake.org.uk/beep.

Since 1995, Brake has been working to stop the tragedy of road deaths and serious injuries in road crashes, make streets safe and healthy places for all, and support road crash victims. In 2023, the charity supported more than 1,500 families, providing specialist emotional and practical support to help them cope with the trauma of road death and injury.

Ross Moorlock, Chief Executive Officer at Brake, said: “Beep Beep! Day is a great opportunity to start a conversation with young children about why road safety is so important. It is up to us as grown ups to keep children safe on our roads, and this is a great way to engage their attention and help them learn about making safe journeys. It's also a great opportunity to send vital safety messages out to all parents, carers and the wider community too.”

Brake campaigns for safe and healthy roads through seeking government policies and investment through projects that help communities, schools and employers promote safe and pollution-free streets locally. Brake delivers Road Safety Week, the UK’s biggest road safety campaign.

Brake is the national provider of care and support to victims of road crashes and their families through the National Road Victim Service, helping families cope with the shock, turmoil and devastation that road crashes cause families across the UK every day.

For more information and to fundraise for the charity, go to www.brake.org.uk.