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Teaching road sense

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
In 1954 the police were visiting schools to teach children road awareness. But this was more than the standard ‘look both ways’ teaching. It involved getting children to see the road and it’s hazards from a driver’s point of view.

This scheme looks very effective. How could it fail to engage the children ? Birmingham School unknown. Did they visit your school ?

If children didn’t have access to this scheme or a family car, the next best recommended thing you could do as a parent was to take a journey on a bus, front seat (preferably a rainy day) and discuss the hazards etc, Viv.

Photos are from the Birmingham Post on 12/7/1954. Source: British Newspaper Archive
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This seems to be part of a similar campaign in 1960 - on Lewis’s rooftop. By this time there was a Road Safety Week. I remember visits to our Junior School with talks about road safety and a film. Afterwards we each got a 1d Cadbury chocolate bar. Another way to gain the attention of youngsters ! Viv.

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Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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They certainly look very ‘real’ Pete. Bet the police had a struggle to get the kids out of them.

Viv
 
Interestingly Viv, in the 1950’s there was around 110 child fatality’s every year due to motor traffic accidents in Birmingham alone. So you can see why there was such investment in road safety schemes like these.
 
Yes Mort. I remember a campaign locally in Kingstanding. The Kingstanding Road had a couple of tragic accidents involving children. Crossing it used to be a nightmare at peak times. But we still roamed the streets unaccompanied. Viv.
 
I remember the police coming to our school teaching us about crossing the rd.and .(sadly no pedal car) we had to take our bike if we had one,do a litle ride around the playgound, then we were told what we did wrong...i still remember it. ..its as shame there was no green cross code to save lives back then.
 
We were asked each year or so to colour in a picture for road safety week. I recall it had various people doing dangerous things and you had to spot them.
 
Hello everyone,

I'm working on the research for a book about the Austin J40 pedal car.

Many of these little cars were used for children's road safety demonstration work in period; at local primary schools and indeed on the roof at Lewis's department store.

They were very popular with local authorities and a number were exported worldwide to local police forces, as far afield as Canada and closer to home in Austria and Germany, with a number donated by the Austin Motor Company for this express purpose.

I'm most interested in images that any of you might have of the pedal cars being used by Birmingham Police or indeed the Birmingham Accident Prevention Council in the period 1950-1970.

We are soon soon to start working on a chapter focusing on the 'J40 in road safety', so any images or memories would be welcomed.

Any resulting leads would be greatly appreciated and of course, any images we ultimately use in the book will be acknowledged in print.

I can be contacted at leemarshallconsulting@outlook.com

Thank you in advance,

Lee
 
Vivienne14 said:
In 1954 the police were visiting schools to teach children road awareness. But this was more than the standard ‘look both ways’ teaching. It involved getting children to see the road and it’s hazards from a driver’s point of view.

This scheme looks very effective. How could it fail to engage the children ? Birmingham School unknown. Did they visit your school ?

If children didn’t have access to this scheme or a family car, the next best recommended thing you could do as a parent was to take a journey on a bus, front seat (preferably a rainy day) and discuss the hazards etc, Viv.

Photos are from the Birmingham Post on 12/7/1954. Source: British Newspaper Archive
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View attachment 154967
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These are amazing images - thank you for sharing. These cars appear to have been supplied directly from the Austin Motor Company.
 
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