I know it's not cool to walk to school with your parents. But I don't plan to let her walk alone until she's at least 11. Ms. Davey, a physicist and management consultant, is not the worrying type. Her spouse, Pascal Portelance, picks them up. That ritual is the single most important action they can perform to protect their children from harm, not because they are scaring off molesters, but because they act as a buffer to traffic.
Traffic accidents are, by far, the leading cause of death and injury among school-aged children.
The statistics are staggering. Each year, almost 800 children from 5 to 18 are killed in motor-vehicle accidents and 60,000 more are injured. Pri mary-school students are at the greatest risk. Janet Wyman, a botanist and mother of two, does not know the statistics, but she is passionate about the issue of traffic, particu larly speeding. It is less than a block from his home, but Ms. Wyman would never dream of letting him walk alone, even though the single street he needs to cross has both a light and a crossing guard.