Police Scotland has been taking steps to reduce the risk of car accidents involving children and other vulnerable pedestrians as part of its Vulnerable Road Users Campaign.
Importantly, officers have been targeting schools with a view to helping ensure that kids are alert, aware, engaged and informed at the beginning of the academic year, a time when, historically, there is a rise in the rate of road accidents involving children.
However, it is not only children who will be targeted as part of the campaign; there will also be serious and sustained focus on the safety of elderly pedestrians, another vulnerable road user group, as well as cyclists - who are also at a disproportionate rate of risk when using Scotland's roads.
In fact, during 2014, more than 35 percent of the 200 people who suffered fatal personal injury on Scotland's roads were cyclists, children or the elderly, while nearly 3,000 road users from these three groups sustained personal injury during the same 12 months.
Fortunately, the campaign is no flash in the pan. It began at the end of August and will run until March 2016 and forms part of a larger and more exhaustive campaign – the "Road Users Life Cycle".
The campaign focuses on people throughout the road users' life cycle, highlighting the risks faced by each category of road user.
"As road users we all have a responsibility to look out for each other. Pedestrians, especially the young and the elderly, are particularly at risk and we want to make drivers think about how their actions, carelessness or inattention may impact on these vulnerable groups," commented Chief Inspector Brian Shaw, Area Commander in North Ayrshire, during a recent visit to primary schools in the area.
For information and advice about claiming compensation for an accident to a child, contact the leading personal injury solicitor firm in Scotland, Thompsons, by clicking here.
