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  Research  

The Problem

Over the past few years, there has been a very drastic increase in the amount of lives that are lost on the road, especially the lives of young people that are either diving unsafely or not being carefull enough when crossing the road. In fact, over half of accidental deaths of young people in Britain aged between 5 and 14 years old are a result of some form of road accident. Statistics show that pedestriands of under 16 years are most at risk on the road, as is ilustarted in this chart.

Every year over 130 children die and more than 4,500 are seriously injured whilst walking or cycling on UK roads and this number is growing year by year. Children and young people need to be taught basic lessons about how drive and cross the road safely so that there will be a reduction in the amout of road related casualites.

older children and teenagers are also at risk due to them being out quite late. This group are at further risk because of the longer journeys to and from school with friends and often on their own. In school, children are taught to recognise and manage risk and make safer choices about healthy lifestyles, different environments and travel and therefore need to be taught more about being safe on the roads, especially at the evening and at night.

Research has uncovered important differences in the way British children use the streets compared to French and Dutch children:

  • British children spend more time near main roads, busy roads, and roads with faster traffic, than their European equivalents.

  • British children are less likely to use a marked crossing when choosing a crossing point.

  • British children are less likely to be accompanied by an adult, and more likely to be accompanied by other children, who might distract their attention

  • 20% of British children hang about in the street, on foot or on cycles

A new report by the BBC has found that one in 651 children aged 12 was reported as a pedestrian casualty between 2006-11.

The authors think this could be down to kids being given more freedom to walk to and from school when they reach secondary age.

They're calling for better road safety and better pedestrian training for children in that age group.

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 When the world health orginisation was asked why so many young people are dieing on the road, they said:

Young road users are at risk for road traffic injuries for a number of reasons:

  • roads are planned without sufficient consideration of their specific needs;

  • their physical and developmental characteristics (for example, the small size of children) increase their risk;

  • risk taking behaviour and peer pressure, particularly among adolescents; and

  • other risk factors such as speeding, drink-driving, not using helmets or not wearing seat-belts.

Globally, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people aged 10-24 years. Each year nearly 400 000 people under 25 die on the world’s roads – an average of 1049 a day. Most of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries and among vulnerable road users – pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and those using public transport.

Road traffic injuries can be prevented. A number of targeted interventions have proved to be effective in addressing these risk factors and reducing road traffic injuries among young people. These interventions include separating different types of road users, reducing speed, lower blood alcohol limits and graduated driver licensing schemes for novice drivers. These are discussed in detail in a new document called "Youth and Road Safety" published by WHO on the occasion of the First United Nations Global Road Safety Week (23-29 April 2007). The main global event for the Week was the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. More than 100 young "ambassadors" met to discuss road safety and adopt a Youth Declaration for Road Safety.

The Current Offering

The first game that I looked at for market research was an online flash game called “Izzy’s road safety”. The game is very simple and is comprised of many different mini games that relate to safety both as a passenger and as a pedestrian.  As you can see from this image, the overall game contains many mini games that relate to pedestrian safety, passenger safety and playing safely on the road. All of them are original in the gameplay and supply a kind of educational message during or at the end of the game to educate the player about how to be safe on the road.

In the pedestrian section, there are two games that educate the player about how to cross the road safety. The first is called “What’s that sound” and the objective is to recognise the sounds that may be heard while on the roads. it is educational because it teaches children to listen to their surroundings while crossing the road.

in the passenger section, there is a game called 'buckle up' where you have to match up a child to the correct car seat depending on their age. it helps children to remember to sit in their correct car seat and to always wear a seatbelt.

The last game in the play safe section is called 'safe to ride' where you must choose the things that you need to check on your bike before your bike before you head out to ride such as if the chain works or the bell is loud enough. It reminds children to check their bikes before they go riding on the road.

The second game that i looked at was the 'dress bright and be seen' game from the Think! website. The game is dedicated to reminding young people about the dangers of being on the road; particularly at night. The mechanics are very simple and basic: you must rapidly click pn the children crossing across the road on the screen in order to equip them with them with the attire needed to cross the road safely. if you do not light them up in time, they will be hit by a car and you will lose the game. Its seems to be targeted at ages 7-12 due to its simplistic yet dark nature.

The third game that i looked at was another 'tales of the road' game. this one was called 'the boy who didn't stop, look and listen' and this one was by far the weakest game i have looked at. You must spin a wheel which dictates whether or not the boy stops, looks and listens. If you arent lucky, the boy will get hit and you will lose the game.

It is a very simple yet boring game mechanic which isnt at all eduactional outside of the fact that it teaches children to stop, look and listen. It is purely luck based and therefore not very interesting for children to play. The graphics are quite grusome snd shows a death animation of the child being hit by a car and being injured which in a way ilustrates the truth of the conciquences of being hit by a car in the real world.

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