With the largest number of child pedestrian injuries occurring while pupils walk to and from school, kids are being urged to look up not down at their phones when crossing roads.
Look Up! month is here
As children across the UK return to the classroom and many start to walk to school by themselves, First News, the UK’s leading newspaper for young people, is relaunching the annual First News Look Up! Campaign as part of its ongoing commitment to child safety for the month of September.
Research found that out of 3,000 road crossings by pupils, nearly a third were holding a phone or another device. New Government figures show that in the UK, 4,577 pedestrians aged 15 and under were injured on roads in 2023, with 1,340 of them either killed or left with life-changing injuries. This equates to nearly four child pedestrians per day or a classroom-sized group of 26 children each week.