Vol. 541 No. 4
347 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the action he is taking regarding a newspaper article which states that the major cause of child deaths was traffic accidents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23125/01]
The need for children to develop good road safety habits at the earliest possible age was recognised in the Government's road safety strategy. Road Accident Facts 2000, the most recent of the annual reports published by the NRA, is available in the Oireachtas Library. It indicates that of 415 people killed in road accidents in 2000, 22 were under the age of 15, representing 5.3% of the total number of road deaths. In the second progress report on the Government road safety strategy, published in July 2000, the high level group on road safety recommended that vulnerable road users, of which children form a part, be added as a further area of focus for the strategy and additional measures and resources be directed at this new target area.
As part of its leading role in the Government strategy, the National Safety Council was asked to develop a resource pack on road safety for the social, personal, health and education programme in the new primary school curriculum. The resource pack, called Be Safe, was launched in September 2000 and over 30,000 copies of it have been distributed to primary school teachers, principals and boards of management. The NSC has also developed a secondary school transition year resource project on road safety. It has been pilot tested in 20 secondary schools throughout the country and was launched on 10 September 2001. This resource will complement existing activities in secondary schools.
