Stay Safe This Summer

Each year more than 1,800 children are seriously hurt and 50 children die while participating in summer activities like bicycle riding, swimming, walking or playing on playgrounds. Follow the key safety tips below to prevent serious injuries this summer while keeping fit and having fun!

Biking: Top Tips

• Make sure your child wears a properly fitted bike helmet on every ride. Most serious cycling injuries and deaths are as a result of head injuries. A bike helmet reduces the risk of head injury by up to 85 percent.
  
  
• Keep children off the road until at least age 10. Young children don't have the mental and physical skills to ride safely in traffic. Even children aged 10 and older need lots of practice with an adult before riding their bikes alone in traffic. These skills develop gradually from about age 10 to age 14.
  
  

• Stay within sight and reach when children are in, on or near water. Children under age 5 have the highest risk of drowning because they are attracted to water but they don't understand the dangers of drowning.
  
  
• Make sure your home swimming pool is surrounded by a 4-sided pool fence at least 4 feet (1.2 metres) high with a self-closing, self-latching gate. Most young children drown when they are playing near water, rather than swimming. Many of these drownings happen in backyard swimming pools.
  
  

• If your child is under age 9, make sure he crosses the street with and adult or older responsible child. Children under age 9 can't make good decisions about traffic, are distracted easily and lack a sense of danger. For example, they often think that if they can see a car, then the car can see them.
  
  
• Practice walking safely with your child. Teach them to cross the street at intersections only and not in the middle of the street. Teach them to stop and check both ways for traffic before crossing the road. Children need to show their parents that they can cross the street safely before they can start walking on their own.
  
  

• Choose a playground with a deep, soft surface and supervise your child closely. Most playground injuries happen when children fall from high equipment (more than 5 feet high) onto a hard surface. Children under age 5 should use equipment that is less than 5 feet (1.5 metres) high.
  
  
• Remove all drawstrings from you child's clothing and make sure that they take off a bike helmet before they play on playground equipment. Some children have been strangled when their clothing drawstrings or bike helmets straps became caught on equipment.