ROADMATE: Child Pedestrian Road Safety Product.

Throughout the world, roads are bustling with people operating cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles and mopeds; with pedestrians and other types of road users. Travel made possible by motor vehicles supports economic and social development in many countries and makes transporting goods and people fast and easy. Despite these benefits, however, motor vehicles are involved in accidents that are responsible for millions of deaths and injuries every year worldwide. Globally, every-year, about 1.3 million people are killed in motor vehicle accidents and 20-50 million more are seriously injured. Half of those people killed, globally, are pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists. By 2020, motor vehicle accidents are expected to become the third most serious threat to human health in the world. Road traffic accidents are the world's leading cause for individuals between the ages of 15-29 years, and every four minutes a child is prematurely lost on the roads of this world. Many more are injured often severely. Bearing in mind that globally there are 75 countries that drive on the same side of the road as the United Kingdom I have developed a product that can be available to children in all those countries. Likewise, there are 141 countries that drive on the right-hand side of the road making my product a truly global solution, connecting people of different backgrounds with a new experience based on a shared interest and passion. Since April 2000, I have been conducting extensive market research, into why I believe children are still being killed or seriously injured as pedestrians on our roads. Just because we tell children not to do something doesn’t mean they will apply this in practice. "Increasing knowledge does not improve behaviour" (Prof. S. Zeedyk.). In other words, we have to employ a mixed approach, one where we combine what we teach our children (tell them how to cross the rod safely) with methods of actual practice thus putting the theory into practice in a safe environment. As a consequence of this, I have developed ROADMATE, which takes children on a road safety journey. This product has been designed to provide the children with their own personal interactive learning environment, which teaches children to adopt the correct behaviour to cross the road safely.

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