More than 200,000 children are taking part in an event today (Wednesday 24 April) to raise awareness about the importance of road safety.

Brake, the road safety charity, is hosting Beep Beep! Day – a national event to help young children and their carers learn about being safe near roads.

The event focuses on three things to help young children be safer near roads – holding hands with a grown up when walking, crossing roads at safe places and always using a child seat when travelling by car.

Ross Moorlock, Chief Executive Officer at Brake, said: “Road death and road harm has a devastating impact on families, schools and communities.

“Beep Beep! Day is a great opportunity to start a conversation with young children about why road safety is so important.

“It is up to us as grownups to keep children safe on our roads, and this is a great way to engage their attention and help them learn about making safe journeys.

“It's also a great opportunity to send vital safety messages out to all parents, carers and the wider community too.”

To coincide with this year’s Beep Beep! Day, Brake has revealed the extent of child casualties on roads in Britain.

Every day, nine young children are killed or injured on roads in Britain. More than 3,400 children aged 7 or under were killed or injured on roads in Britain in 2022 – equivalent to nine young children being killed or injured every day.

The charity also polled more than 120 parents and carers of children aged 7 or under to understand behaviours and concerns they may have about their children’s journeys.

When asked about how their children travel to school on a typical day, more than two-thirds (69%) said they walk, wheel or scoot, while less than one-third (28%) said they mainly travel by car. (The rest chose other modes of transport.)

A spokesperson for the charity added: “It’s worrying to see that almost half (46%) of parents polled don’t always hold their child’s hand when walking near roads or crossing roads, and 10% said that for short journeys they might let their child travel in a car without using a child seat.

“When asked what factors would encourage them to walk or cycle more with their children, a quarter (24%) said safe pavements, footpaths and crossing places.

“Parents also told us they needed slower traffic to make roads safer in their local community.”

Brake has run Beep Beep! Days for 20 years, and the charity was delighted to see demand for participation soar this year, reaching double the number of children who participated in 2023.

Everyone who signs up to take part in a Beep Beep! Day receives an action pack of teaching resources that includes activities to help children learn about road safety, plus important messages to send home to parents and carers, all illustrated with characters from Aardman’s popular children’s TV programme Timmy Time.

Brake was able to fund and dispatch 1,650 printed packs to schools, nurseries and childminders all over the UK, with further free resources available to anyone who signs up at www.brake.org.uk/beep.