Young road users do not understand or react to complex traffic situations in the same way as adults. Their developmental immaturity means that in the traffic environment young children lack certain abilities that adults possess and this increases their risk to road traffic crashes. In addition, the need of young children to exert physical energy, explore and play, combined with a lack of safe areas to do so, may predispose them to a greater likelihood of being hit by a vehicle (OECD, 2004).
The child in traffic has certain limitations and this will be discussed below.
Limitations of size
The child has difficulty seeing in traffic: he or she needs to be tall enough to view the surrounding traffic.
The child may not be easily seen by other traffic users: A child is top heavy- that is, the size of the child‟s head relative to the rest of the body is greater than the ratio in adults. A child therefore has a higher centre of gravity than an adult, leading to a greater disposition of head injuries (OECD, 2004)
Limitations of vision
Children have less developed perception of depth and thus have difficulty in judging the distance between themselves and other objects, particularly when both are in motion.
66 Limitations of hearing
Small children have difficulty discerning the size and speeds of vehicles from the sound of the engine as they approach.
Children have difficulty discerning what direction a sound is coming from and hence what direction a car is coming from.
Limitations of attention
Young children are active, energetic and often impulsive.
Their concentration span is shorter and they can struggle to attend to more than one problem at a time.
Children can be easily distracted by other stimuli which may lead them to suddenly run onto the road.
Limitations of judgment
Speed and distance are difficult for a child to judge but are essential for safely crossing a road.
The concept of left and right as positions relative to the body develop slowly and are only established after age seven.
While young children may inadvertently take risks because they lack appropriate skills to do otherwise, older children and adolescents may indeed have the skills but may actively seek out risk. Risk taking behaviour may allow adolescents to feel a sense of control over their lives or sometimes to oppose authority. Research shows that there are high levels of „sensation seeking‟ behaviour among young adults and a need to maintain a heightened level of physiological arousal (Zuckerman, 1994).
Zuckerman (1994) further states that young people consequently seek new situations and experiences to maintain this level, irrespective of the risks inherent in the experience. Such sensation -seeking frequently focuses on risky behaviours including while driving a vehicle or crossing a road. Sensation-seeking has been shown to rise between the ages of 9-14 years, peaking in the late adolescence or the early 20s, and
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then declining steadily with age. Across all ages and particularly among the young, sensation-seeking is more common among males than females (Zuckerman, 1994).
As young children become adolescents, peer influence becomes increasingly important, compared to earlier strong influence of parents. For many young people, their peers are the most important people in their lives and are often also their primary source of behavioural norms. Teenagers can be led by what is considered
“cool”, not necessarily what is safe. Hedlund & Compton (2004) state that peer pressure can mean that young people are more likely to behave in a risky manner on the road, both as novice drivers or riders, and as pedestrians.
In considering the developmental factors that predispose youth towards increased risk for road traffic collisions, the environmental pressures that may exacerbate inherent risks should be taken into account. Factors such as risk-taking and peer pressure that direct young people towards high-risk behaviours are often used in marketing techniques targeted to appeal to youth. Large corporations and industries can influence both individual behaviour and social norms in a manner that may increase risk on the roads. For this reason, one needs to consider not only individual behaviours, but also the environmental factors, including media, messages, community norms, and public and institutional policies, which may support high risk behaviours.
Developmental risks are also affected by gender. From a young age, males are more likely to be involved in road traffic crashes than young females..Young boys are more likely than young girls to play on busy roads and to run or ride bicycles onto roads without first stopping to check for traffic. The fatality rate for traffic collisions which involves young children on bicycles is twice as high for boys as for girls (WHO, 2004). In a study conducted in Iran it was found that boys were involved in a greater number of bicycle accidents than girls. Of the 1079 cycling injuries reported in the study, 79% were reported for boys, and 21 % for girls. Cycling is not considered to be socially acceptable for girls of school going-age, therefore there were no injuries among this age group. The 21% reported was for pre-school girls (WHO, 2004).
Among child pedestrians suffering road traffic injuries, boys are usually involved in more road crashes than girls. This is attributed to lesser supervision of boy than girls.
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This is governed by greater social permissibility of male mobility as opposed to female mobility. Among drivers, young males under the age of 25 years are almost three times as likely to be killed as their female counterparts. In a study conducted in Georgia in the United States of America of risky behavior among 16-19 year olds, it was found that significantly more males reported driving over the legal speed limit and also overtaking in a no-overtaking zone (WHO, 2002) This may reflect the fact that males are more likely to be on the roads, often because of socio-cultural reasons, as well as a greater propensity to take risks, compared to females. Therefore men have a higher exposure to the risk of traffic injuries (WHO, 2004). Gender role socialization and the association of masculinity with risky behaviour, and a disregard of pain and injury are factors that lead to hazardous behavior on the road
The perception of risk seems crucial for safe traffic participation. If learners do not perceive that they are at risk, they are unlikely to be able to prevent getting involved in dangerous situations.