The campaign was launched after findings that children from Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi families are twice as likely to be killed on the road as white children. A report published by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions shows that of the almost 6,000 children killed or seriously injured on British roads each year, a disproportionate number are Asians.
Asian children face some common risks.
These are greater if they play frequently in the street, belong to a family with more than three children under age 16, live in a thorough road or are less well supervised. But the other risk factor thrown up is simply being of Asian origin. The department has published leaflets on road safety in Punjabi, Gujarati, Urdu and Bengali for distribution among South Asian families in Britain. Every child's life is precious, and must be protected. Although the UK generally has an excellent road safety reputation, we are committed to the tough target of reducing the number of children killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads by 50 percent by 2010.