THE Kiama municipality is taking steps to address child pedestrian and roadside safety during holiday periods.
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The Little Blue Dinosaur ‘Holiday Time: Slow Down, Kids Around’ campaign has expanded to the Kiama municipality.
Child pedestrian and roadside safety advocates Michelle and David McLaughlin and their foundation, the Little Blue Dinosaur, are expanding their ‘Holiday Time’ signage program with the assistance of Kiama Municipal Council’s Road Safety Program.
The LBD is a foundation dedicated to the prevention of roadside child pedestrian accidents through community education and awareness, dedicated to the memory of Michelle and David’s son, Tom.
Tom was the victim of roadside accident while on holidays with his family on the Central Coast in January 2014.
The campaign was aims to raise critical awareness of the importance of road safety for children in unfamiliar environments in coastal towns.
“Children are in a highly excitable state on holidays and with the population spike in these areas during holiday periods, particularly over summer, the risk of accidents is increased,” Michelle and David McLaughlin said.
“It is an unusually dangerous time for children on roads.
“We are so pleased that Kiama Municipal Council’s is joining the LBDF this year to make coastal holidays safer for our children,” Mrs McLaughlin said.
In Kiama and Gerroa Holiday Parks, signs will be erected to target key tourist areas where the holiday periods result in increased pedestrian foot traffic as well as an amplified number of vehicles in the area.
“This is a simple but effective way to remind people they need to be more vigilant on local roads during holiday periods when children are out and about in much bigger numbers,” Kiama council’s road safety officer Janelle Burns said.
“It is easy for children to become caught up in the holiday spirit and forget to take care around roads, and sadly it only takes a moment’s inattention for a tragedy to occur.”
“I want to stress to the community, parents and carers that we must hold our children’s hands when on or near roadways until the age of 10, and closely supervise children until at least 12 because they can’t always identify safe places to cross the road and act inconsistently in the traffic environment,” Mrs McLaughlin said.
