[pendy]

When you have a situation like in Lambeth, where Tufty the Squirrel was banned from schools because it was racist, it's no wonder children don't know how to cross the road!

However, it is no good telling children what to do if when you are with them you drag them across the road behind you without looking. I am constantly amazed that more pedestrians are not killed or maimed on our roads every day. They walk between buses, try to cross from your blind side, and often run across the road in front of traffic - then they stroll over to a shop window and peer in, so they're not in that much of a hurry.

I remember an American girl at the traffic lights at Russell Square, someone ran across the road in front of a bus. She was horrified and said to me "Why do they do that?". The answer is "Because they can get away with it". If we introduce a penalty for jaywalking, like many other countries have, fewer people will do it. If a pedestrian is injured through their own fault, by jaywalking, they should have to contribute towards their hospital treatment. The accident rate would go down immediately, and stay down.