Churchill magazine

Why mobile phones cause accidents near schools

Updated on: 14 October 2024

Teenage school girl walking next to a road while looking at her phone

Every month in the UK, around 1,200 children are injured in traffic collisions within 500 metres of a school. This is a shocking statistic, which inspired us to carry out our own research into the risks associated with walking to school.

So, we carried out a survey of 2,000 school children aged 11-16, as well as their parents, to find out how they behave when going to and from school.

We discovered that 84% of pupils use their mobile phones near roads and a staggering one in five secondary school pupils has been hit or narrowly missed by a vehicle while using their phone.

It’s clear that distractions are endangering young lives, so we launched our ‘Screens Down, Eyes Up’ campaign.

We wanted to raise awareness around the start of the new school year, when a new cohort of pupils will start secondary school and walk to school by themselves for the first time.

That, coupled with the fact that many children are given their first mobile phone in the weeks before starting secondary school, means that children are likely to be distracted – juggling their phones with road safety.

Our research showed that 68% of pupils use their phones to message on the move, 29% scroll or upload on social media while walking, and some 10% even watch films while walking near roads.

Here’s a breakdown of our findings:

What secondary school students are using their phones for while walking near the roads

Percentage of students 

To text/message

68%

To play music

59%

To call

49%

To take pictures/videos

37%

Using TikTok

29%

Using Snapchat

27%

To play games

23%

Using Instagram

16%

Using other social media

10%

To watch TV/films

10%

Which region is most affected?

According to our study, children feel most distracted while walking near the road in Scotland (76%), compared to England (69%) and Wales (65%). However, children in Wales reported a higher percentage of nearly being hit by a vehicle (60%), compared with England (44%) and Scotland (28%).

Behavioural scientists analysed mobile phone usage by pupils around schools, identifying the huge number looking at their screens when crossing roads.

Observational research conducted by Intelligent Data showed a tenth of children had their eyes on their phones when crossing the road outside their school.

And, at a secondary school in Edinburgh, researchers found that half (50%) of pupils were glued to their phones while crossing the road on the way to their lessons.

Ranking

Do you use your mobile phone in any way while walking near the road, such as while on the way to school?

Percentage of students

1 Belfast 90%
1 Norwich 90%
2 Bristol 89%
3 Cardiff 87%
3 Newcastle 87%
4 Leeds 86%
4 Plymouth 86%
4 Liverpool 86%
6 Glasgow 85%
6 Sheffield 85%
7 Manchester 84%
7 London 84%
7 Nottingham 84%
8 Edinburgh 82%
8 Brighton 82%
9 Southampton 81%
10 Birmingham 79%

Churchill’s road safety campaign

We worked with Dr Jessamy Hibberd, a clinical psychologist, to create our 'Screens Down, Eyes Up' campaign. The idea was to highlight the dangers of mobile distractions while calling for increased awareness. Dr Hibberd said:

“Children’s experience of the visual world is very different from adults. Younger secondary school children do not combine different sensory information, such as vision and sound, to make sense of the world as adults do.

Secondary school children are also more impulsive and do not process risk in the same way as adults, which means that signage directed at them around schools needs to be more noticeable and ‘direct’ to grab attention away from their phones.

Bright contrasting colours, simple messages, multiple attention alerts incorporating sound and texture on the ground, are all essential factors to encourage greater attention to the risks when crossing the road.”

School child waiting to cross the road, standing next to bright neon sign

Here are Dr Hibberd’s top tips for getting children’s attention:

  • Pattern and content: Use multiple attention alerts: visual (static signs & movement), auditory and texture on the ground. Use clearly understood symbols to appeal to a younger audience, such as the eyes emoji or clever use of arrows.
  • Colour: Use striking, attention-grabbing signage, with bright contrasting colours, such as yellow and black or white and red.
  • Shape: Incorporate aspects from existing UK road signs, so context is immediately understood – such as circle shape for stop.
  • Dynamic cues: Consider an auditory alert played on speakers at the crossing when a pedestrian approaches, or ground sensor LEDs by the crossing that illuminate in different colours when pedestrians walk nearby.
  • Positioning: Signage should be positioned in at least two locations – on the way towards the crossing and on the ground at the crossing.

How can we change behaviour?

To draw children's attention away from their screens, we reimagined roads with bold visual cues. This included attention-grabbing signs with bright colours, arrows and sounds to make crossing safer for children.

While we’re not likely to see any change to road crossings from our 'Screens Down, Eyes Up' campaign, it has served as a reminder that children process information differently to adults, and why it's important to pay closer attention when driving near schools.

By raising awareness, we hope to spark discussions within school communities about the importance of road safety. By highlighting the dangers, our hope is to help reduce the number of road accidents involving children.


Our research

1. Consumer research was conducted by Opinium Research between 12th - 22nd April 2024 on a sample of 2,000 UK 11–16-year-olds and their parents.

2.  Consumer research was conducted by Opinium Research between 23rd – 27th August 2024 on a sample of 2,000 UK adults (271 of which were parents of 11-17-year-olds).

3. Observational Research was conducted by Intelligent Data on 14th March across 10 sites in the UK.

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