More than 67,000 child pedestrians are injured each year. Intermountain Children's Health experts offer safety ideas for back-to-school
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (PRUnderground) August 18th, 2026
School is starting around the country, and soon, many children will be walking to school.
Walking is a great way to stay active, but across the country, more than 67,000 child pedestrians are injured each year.
Intermountain Children's Health offers the following tips for kids to stay safe while walking and playing outside:
• If there are no sidewalks, walk facing oncoming traffic.
• When crossing a street, stop at the curb first. Then look left, right, and left again before crossing.
• Make eye contact with drivers to make sure they see you before crossing in front of them.
• Never run across the street. Children under 10 years old should not cross streets alone.
• Everyone should cross at corners using traffic signals or at marked crosswalks.
• When walking in the dark, wear light colors or reflectors.
• Teach children that they shouldn't play in the driveways, streets, parking lots or unfenced yards by the street.
"We recommend that any child under the age of ten always walk with a parent," said Ashley Castañeda, Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital. " If we have kiddos who are riding their bike or scooters, especially with E-bikes, that they're wearing the proper helmet. E-bikes have a specific helmet that they should be wearing."
It's also important to teach kids to put down their phones and headphones and keep their heads and eyes up to cross the street safely. The same is true for drivers. Distractions from inside the car mean you can't properly attend to unexpected outside issues.
For more safety tips, go to Intermountainhealth.org/childsafety.
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About Intermountain Health
Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 34 hospitals, approximately 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a nonprofit health plan called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For up-to-date information and announcements, please see the Intermountain Health newsroom at https://news.intermountainhealth.org/. For more information, see intermountainhealth.org/ or call 801-442-2000.
