Road Safety
HIGHWAYS AGENCY
Travellers’ check
Make sure you avoid a journey into the unknown – and keep your children happy – with these travel savvy tips from John Williams at the Highways Agency
It’s the phrase every parent dreads. You’ve filled up with fuel, packed up the car and no sooner have you turned the first corner than a little voice pipes up from the back seat – “are we nearly there yet?”
The trick, according to parenting experts, is not to say “soon”, which is what most of us do. That’s because small children have little idea of the passing of time, so “soon” to them might mean in the next five minutes, while your journey might be taking five hours. What you do instead is say something like “we’ll be nearly there when we get to that big green roundabout by all those tall trees”, which gives them a point of reference. Will it help? Maybe.
 Before you set out on a long trip, make sure your children are happy and comfortable |
A recent survey came to the rather unsurprising conclusion that 99% of parents have been distracted by noisy children while driving and more than half of the 2,000 parents questioned considered travelling with a screaming child more dangerous than driving while using a mobile phone. So how do you keep your babies and toddlers happy and occupied? Some parents use an incentive system and dole out a treat periodically to reward good behaviour. Other advice is to give them favourite toys or books to take with them.
 Check out the Highways Agency website before you set out for the latest travel information |
Try having a sing-along CD or story tape in the car and there’s that old standby, the I-spy game. Some parents play rather complicated games with car registration numbers while the really, really well-off will have a DVD player in the back to play films and TV programmes. Older children can help you plan the route before you set off and take maps with them to cross off points of interest as you pass them. Children get cranky in the backs of cars, so it’s essential to have regular breaks, every two hours at the very most. You will have taken plenty of snacks and drinks for them of course, so frequent toilet stops can avoid those embarrassing little accidents. If you’re taking pets as well, don’t forget they will need a drink too.
And keep plenty of wipes on hand
for the inevitable spills and emergencies.
If there’s a grassy area where you
stop – as there is in many motorway service
stations now – let them run around to let off
steam and burn up some energy.
They also feel the heat more than
we do, so make sure that the sun is not
on them constantly by using child blinds
on the windows. And, of course, for safety
reasons make sure you have the right seats
or booster seats for them. Check you are
on the right side of the law at this useful
Department for Transport website:
www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/campaigns/childcarseats/childcarseats.htm
Before you even set out, there are a lot of things that you can do to make your journey more comfortable. We at the Highways Agency, who run all the motorways and major roads in England, have huge amounts of information about current conditions on our network and there are many ways in which we can help you plan your trip.
To avoid delays and to get the best possible information about conditions en route, check out our website at www.highways.gov.uk/trafficinfo – we have live maps of seven regions in England showing where there might be delays. We’ve also got a new travel news radio service on the web at www.highways.gov.uk/radio. Staffed by professional broadcasters, it supplies continuously updated information on road conditions in tightly written bulletins – localised for five different areas of England – with information taken from police control rooms, 2,250 CCTV cameras, speed sensors and motorway variable message signs.
 You can call a Highways Agency advisor 24 hours a day on the information line |
Then there’s our information line at 08457 504030 where you can speak to an advisor 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (Calls from BT landlines will cost no more than 3p per minute, mobile calls usually cost more.) During journey breaks, when it’s safe to call, you can get live traffic information on 08700 660115 – and you can select which road you want the information about. (Calls from BT landlines to 0870 numbers will cost no more than 8p per minute; mobiles may cost more.)
We want you and your little ones to have safe, comfortable and reliable journeys on our roads – we put our customers first in everything we do.
