Learning Traffic Rules is as important as Education for the Children

A sudden screaming voice of a lady made everybody within a distance of half a kilometer walking on the road stop and look back at her. It was a frightful moment when we realized why she had screamed. Her child was about to get hit by a car. After the situation came in control, a few of us went to the lady and asked her what happened. We got to know that her child had seen his uncle standing on the other side of the road and out of excitement ran towards him on the busy road. Well, this was just an example of how accidents take place due to children and how the chances of these children meeting with accidents are more than the adults because they are not familiar with the road safety rules. According to the results of new research, the number of serious accidents has increased among the children. The recent traffic accidents survey of 2008 shows that the road accidents of children has increased upto 25 children of the range of 10 year olds, 68 11 year olds and 96 12 year olds whereas there was a decline in the accident ration of the children from the age of 13 and above. These days the numbers of vehicles have also increased like anything. Like everything has a demerit, the increase of vehicles give comfort to the people but the numbers of road accidents have also increased if we compare the present day scenario with the earlier days. Does that mean pedestrians will stop walking on the roads to avoid road mishaps? Well, that is a next to impossible thing. Vehicles can be stopped from running but people cannot be stopped from walking. One of the important things that both parents and teachers should teach them is the importance of road safety. They should be told about the consequences of what happens when a person does not follow traffic rules. In the initial period, it is the duty of the parents to make sure their children follow the road safety rules and walk properly on the road. If the children are taught to follow all the traffic rules then the chances of road accidents become less. In most of the schools, road safety rules are taught to the students by showing them pictures. Most schools have one chapter based on traffic rules in their Civics syllabus. The toddlers should also be taught not to rush while boarding or getting down from the school bus. One of the important steps of road safety rules is not to talk while crossing the road and one should always wait for the signal from the vehicle driver before boarding into it. Children should strictly be instructed to make a queue while boarding into the school bus. Toddlers should also be taught about the importance of the zebra crossing and children must be demonstrated how to cross the roads at the zebra crossing. We think there is no need of learning traffic rules because we all have common sense and with the help of it we can cross at least a road; but what it seems to be so easy is not that easy actually. There is a long list of such instances where almost one person dies everyday in a road accident. With a conscious mind we can easily avoid such mishappenings and teach children the same for their safety.