(HealthDayNews) -- Hundreds of children are hit by motor vehicles every year. One reason is that parents and care givers often overestimate a child's traffic skills, says Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
To keep your child safe, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign suggests:
- Don't allow children under age 10 to cross streets by themselves.
- Model proper pedestrian behavior for your child, such as crossing at street corners, using traffic signals and crosswalks when available, and making eye contact with drivers before crossing.
- Teach your kids to look left, right, and then left again before crossing a street, and to continue looking around when crossing.
- Teach your children that seeing the driver in a vehicle doesn't mean the driver can see them.
- Don't allow your kids to play in driveways, unfenced yards, streets or parking lots.
- When walking along a street with no sidewalks, teach your children to walk facing oncoming traffic, and stay as far left as possible.
- At dawn and dusk, have your kids wear reflective materials and carry flashlights.
- Teach your children to cross the street at least 10 feet in front of a school bus.
