Abstract
School children form majority of injured children on Ghanaian roads. The objective was to observe the road use behaviour of public primary school pupils in Ablekuma Education Circuit, Accra. This unobtrusive observational study targeted Primary one to six pupils. Five behaviours were studied: Walking while crossing road; Stopping at the kerb; Looking left-right-left before crossing; Keep looking left-right-left while crossing and Facing traffic while walking. 882 pupils on their way to or from school were observed from eight schools. A little over two in three children stopped at the kerb before crossing the road while almost three in four children looked for cars before stepping off the kerb. A little over three in four children walked while crossing and less than one in four children kept looking while crossing. Not looking for cars before crossing, not facing on-coming traffic and not keeping looking for cars while crossing, were more associated with boys than girls (p < 0.001; 95%CI in all cases). Girls behaved significantly more safely than boys. In stopping at the kerb, there was no difference in gender behaviour (p < 0.135; 95%CI). Child Road Safety Education in Schools and Communities is recommended.
Highlights
No one is born knowing how to use the road system
Children and young people have a high involvement in road crashes, which is a worrying occurrence and needs urgent attention
This study showed that Children, school-age children, were the group at greatest risk
Summary
No one is born knowing how to use the road system. Children and young people have a high involvement in road crashes, which is a worrying occurrence and needs urgent attention. Four unsafe behaviours were taken note of – not stopping at the kerb, not looking before crossing, attempting to cross when a car was nearing and running across the road. A study by Strukcinskiene (2010) in which 403 boys and 531 girls, aged 10 to 19 years participated, showed 16.8% school children were injured in traffic accident, most of them once (71.3%).
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