Charity calls on nurseries: run a beep beep! day this spring to help save little lives

Nurseries, playgroups, infant schools and children’s centres are being encouraged to run a Beep Beep! Day this spring, to teach tots and infants fun, simple road safety lessons and promote road safety to parents. It’s a chance to get across vital education and awareness to families and the wider community using free resources from Brake, the road safety charity, to help save little lives.

Anyone working with children aged two to seven can host a Beep Beep! Day on a day of their choice, as part of this UK-wide initiative by Brake and Churchill Car Insurance, which involved 27,000 children last year.

Beep Beep! Days involve running creative, educational activities using guidance and resources from Brake, such as creating a poster of hand prints saying ‘we hold hands’, singing road safety songs and baking traffic light biscuits. The activities teach tots the road safety basics and encourage parents to consider the vital steps they need to take to keep their family safe. Children taking part can raise funds in support of Brake’s work campaigning for safer roads and supporting bereaved and injured crash victims. 

Beep Beep! Days are also a great way for nurseries, playgroups and parents to get behind Brake’s GO 20 campaign. GO 20 calls for safer roads in communities so families can walk and cycle for their health, enjoyment and sustainable travel. Brake is calling for action from authorities to make walking and cycling safer, and appealing to drivers to slow down to 20mph around homes, schools and shops. Brake can send out a GO 20 press release to local media for Beep Beep! Day participants, to get the message out.

REGISTER! Nurseries, playgroups, childminders, infant schools and children’s centres can sign up now to run a Beep Beep! Day and receive a FREE bumper resource pack, including posters, stickers and activity ideas. Go to www.brake.org.uk/beepbeepday, call 01484 559909 or email beepbeep@brake.org.uk

Julie Townsend, Brake deputy chief executive, says: “As the weather warms up and more families start getting out and about, spring is an ideal time for nurseries and playgroups to promote road safety, to help save little lives. Organising a Beep Beep! Day is a fun, simple way to teach tots and infants the road safety basics, plus it’s great for persuading parents and everyone in the area that protecting children on roads is vital. Brake provides a bumper pack of resources to help you run a great Beep Beep! Day and get the road safety message out. We can also help publicise your event through local media, appealing to drivers to slow down to protect families in your community. We’re calling on anyone who works with two to seven year-olds to register to be part of this life-saving initiative.”

Steve Barrett, head of Motor new business at Churchill Insurance, said:“We are proud to once again be supporting Beep Beep! Day, an initiative that helps hundreds of nurseries and playgroups across the UK raise awareness about road safety. Too many children are injured or killed on our roads each day. Beep Beep! Day is a great way to start educating tots and infants on road safety, as well as raising awareness among drivers, including parents and grandparents, of the need to drive with extreme care when young children are about.”

About children’s road safety

Traffic is the second biggest killer of children, and the biggest non-medical killer [1]. In 2012, 61 children were killed and 2,211 were seriously injured on UK roads: that’s six under-16s seriously hurt or killed each day. The majority (85%) of children killed or seriously injured on roads are on foot or bicycle [2].

About Brake

Brake is an independent road safety charity, originating in the UK in 1995 and now with domestic operations in the UK and New Zealand, and working globally to promote action on road safety.

Brake exists to stop the needless deaths and serious injuries that happen on roads every day, make streets and communities safer for everyone, and care for families bereaved and injured in road crashes. Brake promotes road safety awareness, safe and sustainable road use and effective road safety policies. We do this through national campaigns, community education, a Fleet Safety Forum, services for road safety practitioners, and by coordinating the UK’s flagship road safety event every November, Road Safety Week. Brake is a national, government-funded provider of support to families and individuals devastated by road death and serious injury, including through a helpline and support packs.

Road crashes are not accidents; they are devastating and preventable events, not chance mishaps. Calling them accidents undermines work to make roads safer, and can cause insult to families whose lives have been torn apart by needless casualties.

Churchill

Founded in 1989, Churchill is now one of the UK's leading providers of general insurance, offering car, home, travel and pet insurance cover over the phone or on-line.

Churchill general insurance policies are underwritten by U K Insurance Limited, Registered office: The Wharf, Neville Street, Leeds LS1 4AZ. Registered in England No 1179980. U K Insurance Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. 

Churchill and U K Insurance Limited are both part of Direct Line Insurance Group plc.  

Customers can find out more about Churchill products or get a quote by calling 0800 200300 or visiting www.churchill.com

End notes
[1] Death registrations in England and Wales: Table 2 Deaths by age, sex and underlying cause, 2010 registrations, ONS, 2011
[2] Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2012 annual report, Department for Transport, 2013