Research shows children lack first aid skills
Research shows that over half of children in the UK would not know how to carry out live-saving first aid at the scene of an accident. This follows a UK-wide survey conducted for the British Red Cross and Toyota by The Children’s Forum.
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| It found that over half (60 per cent) of children who are currently most at risk from road traffic accidents - those aged 9 to 13 years - would not have enough first aid knowledge to help themselves and others at the scene of a traffic accident.
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More than 1,100 children from 20 schools throughout the UK answered a series of questions about first aid and road safety. Over half (53 per cent) of these children had never learnt first aid and most said they did not adopt safe behaviour on the road.
Life-saving skills
The majority (84 per cent) of children admitted that they do not wear a cycle helmet when on their bicycle and most (74 per cent) do not normally use a pedestrian crossing to cross the road.
These findings will concern many parents and carers. Children, particularly those aged 9 to 13 years, are the group most at risk from road traffic accidents. More than 1,800 children in this age group are killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents every year.
Research shows that many of these children’s lives could have been saved if first aid was given at the scene before the arrival of the emergency services.
Despite their lack of knowledge, a vast majority (94 per cent) of children agreed hat it was very important for them to learn first aid - and most wanted to learn more.
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