Every year, more than 360 children are involved in a traffic accident on their way to school – more than two victims per school day. That is why the Walloon Road Safety Agency (Agence Wallonne pour la Sécurité Routière, AWSR) is launching an awareness-raising campaign to prepare parents and children for their school journey.
The AWSR recommends that those who walk to school opt for wide pavements or verges and protected pedestrian crossings equipped with lights for safe crossing. It is also advisable to walk the route several times with children and to wear a helmet, as well as fluorescent clothing or accessories.
Most collisions take place outside the 30 zones
For bicycle or scooter trips, it is advisable to choose a route with wide sidewalks – suitable for children up to 10 years old – and bike paths, even if it is not the shortest. AWSR explicitly asks drivers to respect speed limits and even slow down when approaching children on the road.
Most accidents do not occur near schools, where many facilities, such as 30 kph zones, speed bumps, reinforced signage, or specific street furniture, have been installed to reduce the risks. Unfortunately, many collisions take place on the route itself.
Regardless of age and mode of transport, more than 90% of young people involved in an accident on their way to school are victims outside the 30 km/h speed zone.
Limit the risks
Teenagers aged 12 to 17 are the most represented, with a total of 59% of victims, compared to 41% for 3 to 11-year-olds. “Among the youngest, the majority were travelling by car (55%) or on foot (32%) at the time of the accident, and very few by bike (6%). Teenagers, on the other hand, are more often involved as pedestrians (42%) than as car passengers (19%). They are twice as likely as children to have been involved in bicycle accidents (13%),” AWSR explains.
To limit the risks, it is crucial to prepare well in advance, in particular by equipping yourself correctly and practicing on the way to school. Most experts believe that children can start making trips alone from the age of eight, provided the route has been practiced with an adult beforehand.
What about Flanders and Brussels?
The figures mentioned above relate to Wallonia. In Belgium, an average of approximately 2,290 children (aged 3 to 18) were victims of a traffic accident on their way to school between 2018 and 2022. That’s about 13 per day.
In Flanders, most victims are cyclists (+50%), in Brussels, they are mainly pedestrians (60%), and in Wallonia, a relatively high number of car passengers (+40%) are victims.
More children in Flanders
Flanders also has more children in absolute figures than Wallonia or Brussels. For example, Flanders has 258,000 children in pre-school education compared to 121,678 in Wallonia and 54,485 in Brussels.
Figures from the BIVV safety agency show that relatively more accidents involving children occur in Brussels during school rush hours than in Flanders or Wallonia. Flanders has the highest absolute number of road casualties during these hours, but also the largest share of the total.
