A grieving mum, whose son was struck and killed by a car, has teamed up with 10 childcare centres in Logan to put an end to child pedestrian deaths.
Michelle McLaughlin lost her four-year-old son, Tom, in 2014 after he was hit by a car while on a family holiday.
She said Tom’s death was an agony she lived with every day.
Following the accident, Ms McLaughlin started the Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation to campaign for road safety and youth-pedestrian awareness.
The foundation was named after Tom, who loved to draw blue dinosaurs.
“Our family just adored Tom,” Ms Laughlin said.
“He was… really sweet, kind, caring, helping – I mean, he just never did anything that I really had to ever reprimand him about.
“And look, he wasn’t a risk taker either, but it shows you that children can be curious, they can be impulsive, and they are very fast when they decide to move.”
She said it was important for parents to hold their children’s hands when in carparks, crossing roads or on driveways.
Ms Laughlin said children, especially those under the age of ten, had a range of cognitive limitations (including an inability to cope with changing environments, processing sounds and limited peripheral vision) that made them vulnerable on roads.
Now, she has joined forces with 10 Logan childcare centres and Logan City Council to introduce the pilot “Hold My Hand” program, highlighting the importance of safety for young pedestrians around roads, driveways and carparks.
“In the last decade, there’s been 597 children killed in road trauma [in Australia],” she said
“We’ve also found that in the state of this country, the highest or the greater fatality numbers had occurred in Queensland…Â so I’m really happy we’re in Logan.”
“I’m very grateful to the Logan City Council.”
Each childcare centre will display vibrant and colourful ‘Hold My Hand’ signage, and children and parents will receive educational resources like pamphlets and flyers.
Parents will be surveyed on their attitude towards child pedestrian road safety at the start of the campaign, and again at the end of the trial period.
The data collected will be used to shape future road safety campaigns.
“We can all do this together,” Ms McLaughlin said.
She said campaigning for road safety helped her to heal.
“… but you never really do,” she said.
Her next step was to reach even more local government areas in Australia and establish a federal campaign to share Tom’s story.
