Walk this way

It was a warm afternoon this fall when a group of people, living in the Huamu residential area of Shanghai, were invited to a private photo exhibition in their community.

What surprised them were the pictures taken by their children of the neighborhood. These were no idyllic playground or garden scenes but ordinary, even unsightly, pictures of what the children saw as dangerous conditions but what the adults took for granted.

There were children crossing a high bridge crosswalk with no guardrails over a canal; obstacles such as fire hydrants, power poles and trash bins blocking sidewalks and street crossings; busy unmarked school crossings and a school entrance gate jammed with illegal vendors and improperly parked cars.

A bent sharp-edged metal support jutted from a power pole on an unlighted sidewalk ready to injure pedestrians not careful about where they stepped.

Looking at the pictures the adults recognized that the photos showed hazardous conditions for all pedestrians, but most importantly for their children.

Federal Express (FedEx), one of the world's largest express transportation companies, and Safe Kids Worldwide (a non-profit organization devoted to improving children's walking environments all over the world), have joined hands to promote "Photo-Voice" projects that document the unsafe world as seen through children's eyes.

"The world through a child's eye is much different from the world from an adult's eye - for one thing, it shows a significant gap concerning road safety, which continues to result in a growing number of traffic accidents involving child pedestrians," says Caroline Wang, a spokeswoman for the China Photo-Voice project.

China's fast growth has indeed resulted in a more complex, unregulated and dangerous traffic system in most of China's cities. Personal vehicles, taxis and buses are fast replacing bicycles as the primary mode of transportation and pedestrians are increasingly the victims.

According to a Safe Kids Worldwide report, road accidents have become the second largest killer of children aged 14 and under in China.

Additional information from the report shows that in recent 10 years, an average of more than 30,000 children are injured or killed in traffic accidents annually. Among them, nearly 44 percent are child pedestrians.

Today's traffic situation is obviously different from 10 years ago, says Sun Xin, deputy director of National Chronic and Non-communicable Disease Control and Prevention Center of China.

"The difference is not difficult for adults to handle, but most of us can't imagine how hard it is for a small child or a student," Sun adds.

Dangerous pedestrian crossings are the largest cause of road injuries, according to the Safe Kids China report. Unsafe road conditions, often involving construction, are the second largest contributing factor in child pedestrian accidents, it said.

Consequently, "enhancing child pedestrian safety education and improving road conditions and constructions are urgently needed," says Monica Cui, director of Safe Kids China.

The Photo-Voice project was introduced in China in 2004, with the target to alert children about road safety. More importantly, perhaps, the project's photos inspire adults, particularly people from local government, schools, communities to improve the pedestrian environment for their children.

Safe Kids China first begins a "Community Needs Assessment" in each area it works in such as a way to research the traffic situations in local communities and to speed up the road safety for children.

"As an leading express transportation company, we have close relationship with road safety - because our business is directly related to roads everyday. So the problem of safety is also the most significant value for FedEx Express," says Wilson Chung, vice-president of FedEx Express International Priority Operations of China, explaining why the company launched the Photo-Voice project and encourages their employees to join as volunteers.

From June 2007 to this May, 234 FedEx China employees took part in the programs. They played road safety games with the students and practiced safe walking exercises, arming students with basic pedestrian behavior and road safety knowledge.

Since being introduced to China in April 2004, the program has been conducted in more than 2,000 schools in 12 cities across China. So far, more than 1.4 million students and parents in China have benefited from the pedestrian safety education.

(China Daily 11/17/2008 page8)