Kids at the Irving School in Derby Wednesday covered their eyes in wax paper, wandered into a FedEx truck and ran on the pavement until they were stopped in their tracks by a whistle.
The seemingly random events were all part of a coordinated effort to teach the 400-plus students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade about pedestrian safety.
The Irving School is at the very busy intersection of Seymour Avenue, Caroline Street, and Elizabeth Street. Derby Public Library and the St. Mary-St. Michael School are across the street.
There is limited parking, so cars park everywhere, and there are lots of buses and lots of students walking to and from the schools accompanied by their parents in the morning and afternoon.
The crosswalk in front of the Derby Public Library can be tricky because motorists often run the stop sign (source: writer of this article who drops kid off at the school every day).
So, teaching the kids about safely navigating the streets is crucial, according to Margaret McCabe, the coordinator of Safe Kids Connecticut, a group based out of the Children’s Medical Center in Hartford.
And Friday is Halloween, which means a ton of Derby kids will be out trick-or-treating. Cars plus kids can be dangerous.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that children are four times more likely to be struck by a motor vehicle on Halloween than any other day of the year, according to the AAA website.
“It’s important to teach pedestrian safety to kids because it’s a leading cause of unintentional injury and death to children,” McCabe said. “Halloween is the number one deadliest day of the year for pedestrians.”
In 2012, more than one in every five children between the ages of 5 and 15 who were killed in traffic crashes were pedestrians, according to the CDC.
Also in 2012, an Irving student was struck by a car during a Halloween event on the Derby Green.
An Irving teacher said that more recently a child crossing the street near the school triggered a minor car accident when a motorist slammed the brakes to avoid striking the student.
The Irving kids Wednesday toured a parked FedEx truck to learn about blind spots. Kids sat in the driver’s seat, taking notice of the fact they could not see their classmates directly in front of the vehicle. They looked in the side view mirrors, too.
Here’s a quick video:
Ernest Cash, a Fed Ex manager in Stratford, said some Derby streets specifically can be tough to navigate because they are narrow. Halloween, with the influx of pedestrians, makes the situation that much tougher.
“In this area we purposely send smaller trucks because of the streets,” Cash said.
Irving students also held wax paper over their eyes. The idea was to point out that it’s hard to see in the fog — and that kids should be especially careful crossing streets on foggy days, because they may not be seen by an approaching car.
The kids also ran on the pavement and then stopped when a whistle was blown by Cathi Kellett, of Safe Kids Greater Naugatuck Valley.
The goal of that exercise was to teach kids that if their tiny bodies can’t stop on a dime, neither can approaching cars or trucks.
The students also practiced using the crosswalk.
Wednesday’s activities culminated with an afternoon assembly where the kids reviewed everything they learned.
The Irving students also received reflective bags to use for trick-or-treating on Halloween, along with reflective slap bracelets that can be worn at night to make drivers aware of your presence.
Wednesday’s event was a joint effort of Irving School (led by second-grade teacher Candace Lebel), Safe Kids CT, Safe Kids Greater Naugatuck Valley, FedEx, and AAA Southern New England (Connecticut Division).
Safe Kids Greater Naugatuck Valley founded in 2005 and is led by Valley Parish Nurses and Griffin Hospital.
Here’s the WTNH report on the day:
