AVIVA HAS JOINED FORCES WITH PARACHUTE, A LEADER IN SAFETY AND INJURY PREVENTION, TO BRING SAFER SCHOOL ZONES TO COMMUNITIES THAT NEED IT MOST.
Parachute is a national Canadian charity founded in 2012. Their vision is a Canada free of serious injuries, with Canadians living long lives to the fullest. Parachute has a wealth of knowledge and expertise related to keeping Canadians safe on our roads.
Focused on school zones.
Analysis of data from Transport Canada’s National Collision Database shows that between 1999 and 2013, Canadian children aged 5 to 14 have a greater risk of pedestrian fatality than any other age group. In addition, motor vehicle collisions, including collisions with pedestrians and bicyclists, are the leading cause of pediatric injury and death.
School zones are busy areas during drop-off and pick-up times. There may be school buses, public buses and cars lined up around the corner, while children are walking or cycling alongside this congestion. Many drivers are rushing to beat the bell and with the amount of road users present, traffic danger only increases.
Canadian children aged 5 to 14 have a greater risk of pedestrian fatality than any other age group.
Introducing the Elementary Road Safety program.
The Elementary Road Safety program focuses on empowering communities and schools to identify and address risks to children travelling to and from school. We’ll work at a community-level to improve awareness, attitudes and behaviours of drivers and pedestrians through changes to infrastructure, municipal policy and enforcement.
We’ll be working with twenty elementary schools across Canada over a five-year period. Schools will be selected by:
- identifying dangerous school zones using information from Parachute, third party data, and Aviva claims data
- a call for applications to Parachute's network of partner communities
Want to make your school zone safer? This fall we’ll be releasing a toolkit that can help you assess safety issues in your school zone and provide guidance on changes that can make the area safer.