Save the children

There is one thing wrong with this picture: Red flags are flying to indicate that no one should be in the water.

Lifeguards with loud hailers issue blunt warnings that people are putting their children at risk of drowning. Of the 50 people they rescue from the water during the day, around half are kids.

Instances like this one, reported in the Daily Echo recently, show that for all that parents worry about their children's safety, there are plenty who flagrantly put it at risk.

In some ways we are acutely conscious of the risks facing our children. Around seven children each year are murdered by strangers, and the publicity over these horrifying crimes has led many people to place more restrictions on their kids' lives.

Yet many of the same parents do little to prevent their children becoming part of a much larger statistic: the 320 who die each year through injury or poisoning, or the two million who have to be taken to hospital.

Accidents are the biggest cause of death in children over one year old, outstripping leukaemia or meningitis.

And experts spend much of their time trying to get across basic safety messages on everything from the dangers of railway lines to the need to make children wear seatbelts.

At this time of year, with school holidays and light evenings encouraging children outdoors, the dangers are heightened.

Barry Heathfield, the RNLI's area lifeguard manager in Bournemouth and Poole, had to deal with the problem of swimmers ignoring safety advice.

"We did put the red flags up and were advising people not to go in the water. They still did go in the water. We put lifeguards near as many groynes as we could," he said.

"Most people said 'I didn't realise it was dangerous, we'll go and sit back on the beach' and other people said 'I'm going into the water'.

"Some people said 'I don't think it's rough, I'm going to take my children in'. We can't physically stop them.

"Thousands of people were in the water that day. It does get frustrating."

Peter Isaacs is community liaison officer for Streetwise, the Bournemouth-based charity which educates children about all kinds of safety hazards, from abduction to drowning.

"I wouldn't want to play down the risk of stranger danger but there are other risks from the big wide world," he said.

At Streetwise's interactive safety centre in West Howe, children are shown realistic mock-ups of everyday scenes so they can have safety hazards pointed out to them.

At the heart of the centre is a large-scale replica of a section of high street, with shop fronts, a car and a pelican crossing with working lights.

Road accidents kill 200 children a year - and statistically, the most likely victim is an 11-year-old boy on a residential street between 4-6pm in the height of summer. So this exhibit can teach children some of Streetwise's most important lessons.

Mr Isaacs says children can frequently been seen on real streets flouting important advice.

"The number of times you witness people pressing the button to cross the road and then cross before the green man appears," he said.

"It only takes one vehicle to be coming round a corner and not stop. As far as they're concerned they've got a green light in their favour and may not see the person on the crossing."

For council officers tasked with reducing deaths on local roads, getting across important advice can be a struggle.

Research on the number of parents who fail to strap their children into cars has often made depressing reading. Councils carry out annual checks outside problem schools and the latest figures in Poole revealed that only 72 per cent of children were wearing seatbelts.

Lesley Hart, road safety education officer at the Borough of Poole, said: "That was a four per cent improvement on the year before, which is more than we usually get. We normally find around one third of children are not restrained properly.

"But it is still nowhere near good enough. The most worrying thing for me as I stand outside schools is that often it's not just one child's life that is being put at risk, which is horrendous enough, but sometimes there will be four children sitting there unrestrained.

"We just don't seem to be able to get through to some people. Whether it's sheer laziness or whether they just don't understand the seriousness of the issue, there's a certain element that we will never convert.

"But we've got to keep trying. More people are killed on the roads than in any other way but they don't hit the headlines like other deaths do."

The council has also carried out campaigns advising how child car seats should be used and believes it has had some success with this.

"Following a high-profile national campaign that revealed that children were often taken out of seats at too early an age, I have had a lot of parents contact me," Lesley said.

"Many people just aren't sure what they should be doing and we are happy to advise."

Meanwhile, the growth of the school run has sometimes made the roads more dangerous for children, with parents parking on double yellow lines or around bus stops. Ironically, some of those parents will be ferrying their children because they are concerned about safety.

Another major safety worry in the summer holidays is the number of children who venture onto railways.

Nancy Garcia, Network Rail's route crime manager for the west country, said: "With long days and light evenings, it's easy to understand why children want to play outside - but it's hard to understand why some risk their lives playing on dangerous railway tracks.

"As well as the risk of being hit by a train, there is the risk of electrocution from live rails or overhead lines. Previous tragedies have shown that children and young people do not survive these massive electric shocks."

At Streetwise, an exhibit provides a dramatic illustration of the danger of venturing onto railways. A video screen shows an approaching train and visitors are told to hit a button to try to stop it in time to avoid a collision.

Peter Isaacs says: "That's to emphasise the point that by the time the train driver can see anybody on the track, it's already too late. He cannot stop. The train takes longer to stop than the driver's range of vision."

Roger Vincent, spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), says building sites are another major problem.

"Construction sites do hold this fascination for children, which we can understand. They look like big adventure playgrounds to kids but they are places of work and they're dangerous even to adults," he said.

He said summer was the time when children could be at the highest risk.

"This is the danger time for children because as soon as the school holidays start, they're out and about looking for adventures," he said.

With so many experts warning of so many potential hazards, there is a danger that parents will over-protect their children.

But Mr Vincent says safety campaigns should be about educating parents and children so they can make sensible judgments.

"Children will have a certain number of accidents. I know that a lot of children get hurt and that's the nature of play. Your kids are never going to be perfectly protected and not get hurt. What we want to do is try to minimise the risk," he said.

Streetwise is always looking for volunteers to help teach children about safety. They should be available for a minimum of two or three hours a month. Contact Peter Isaacs on 01202 591330.