Study of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Road Safety among Peri-Urban School Children

Objective: To study the knowledge, attitude and practices of school children about road safety and hazards. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place of Study: Amal School, a private sector institution in Tulspura, Lahore. Duration of Study: December, 2012. Methodology: A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from 100 children in classes four to ten. SPSS version 20 was used for data entry, cleaning and analysis. Results: Among the respondents, 58% were males and 90% were between the age of 9=13 years. Major representation was from classes 4 (22%) and seven (21%). Most of the study participants (88%) had driven bicycles while motorbikes were used by only 27%. The students of class 4, 5, 6 were not able to recognize the road signs (56%) but the rest of the students easily identified the road sign. The awareness regarding traffic signs was 52% among males and 51% females. The knowledge level of study participants regarding road signs was considerably high especially in case of what do the traffic signal lights indicate (94%), not to horn (79%) zebra crossing (95%) and pedestrian prohibited (75%). Students agreed that driving without a valid license is an offence (69%) and chance of accidents increase when driving bikes and motorcycles without a helmet (89%) and using mobiles while driving (92%). Among the respondents, 86% had driven a cycle and 27% had driven a motorcycle but only 10% wore a helmet while riding. Valid license was present with 4% students and 29% of school children had been involved in a roadside accident. Conclusion: Good knowledge about road safety did not translate into prudent traffic practices by students.