A new safety campaign is urging parents to hold their child’s hand while crossing busy roads and car parks.

The campaign “Take My Hand” aims to reduce the number of children killed and injured by cars.

Sarah Dean reports.

TRANSCRIPT

It’s a simple but potentially life saving habit parents holding their child’s hand to cross the road.

Vox 1: “I think it’s very important, because when they’re young they don’t have the ability to calculate how fast a car is travelling.”

The Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland (CARRS-Q) estimates around 27 Australian children are hit and killed by cars each year.

Another 650 are treated in hospital.

Dr Ioni Lewis says the majority are unsupervised at the time.

She’s launched the “Take My Hand” campaign urging parents to hold their child’s hand, to save their lives.

Dr Ioni Lewis, Senior research fellow: “In the Take My Hand campaign, we’re focusing on kids three to nine years of age.

“Because the evidence we have is that around maybe that 10 years of age, parents might be sort of becoming less likely to hold their child’s hand.”

Vox 2: “I think it’s really important. We need to teach our kids road safety.”

But the danger zone isn’t only on busy highways.

Parents are being urged to take more care in shopping centre car parks, as this is where the majority of accidents occur.

Dr Ioni Lewis, Senior research fellow: “For younger children, typically when they are struck by a vehicle, the most common scenario is one where they are actually darting or appearing from between parked cars.”

Dr Lewis wants parents with children under 10 to complete an online survey to share their stories.

It’s available through the CARRS-Q website.

Sarah Dean QUT News.