Parents who forbid their children to cross roads alone may be preventing them from learning vital lessons in how to avoid being run over, according to an analysis of official figures.

The proportion of children who are never allowed to cross a road unsupervised has risen each year for the past five years. But the number of child pedestrians being killed is also rising.

Department for Transport research found that, last year, almost half (49 per cent) of parents with children aged 7-10 said that they never allowed them to cross the road on their own, compared with 41 per cent in 2002.

Over the same period, the number of child pedestrians killed in that age range rose from 10 to 18.

The overall rate of road deaths for all children under 16 rose by 20 per cent between 2005 and 2006, from 141 to 169.

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety said that parents needed to understand the risks of being overprotective. Rob Gifford, the council’s director, said: “Parents should consider whether forbidding their children from crossing the road unaccompanied is exposing them subsequently to additional risk. They may not acquire the skills they need.

“Children need to learn to cross the road on their own and the answer may be to encourage them to do so initially while being watched.”

He said that parents who tried to avoid exposing their children to road danger by driving them to school were contributing to a vicious circle.Drivers became less accustomed to seeing children on the streets and were therefore less prepared for the possibility of one suddenly stepping into the road.

The figures showed that the proportion of primary school children being driven to school had risen from 38 to 41 per cent in the past decade. The numbers walking or cycling to school alone almost halved, from 9 per cent to 5 per cent.

When asked by DfT researchers why they did not allow their children to walk or cycle unaccompanied to school, 59 per cent of parents cited traffic danger and 36 per cent fear of assault or molestation.

The AA said that the trend among planners for creating dead ends on new housing estates also prevented children from becoming “streetwise”.

Andrew Howard, the AA’s head of road safety, said: “Children may be allowed out to play in their cul-de-sac but may never experience being a pedestrian on a busy road because when they leave the estate it’s always in a car.”

The Government acknowledged Britain’s poor record – the worst for child deaths in Europe – when it published its Child Road Safety Strategy this year. The strategy involves teaching safety to 5 to 7-year-olds at the roadside rather than in classrooms.

Brake, the road safety charity, said that such training should be compulsory in schools. But a spokesman for the charity defended parents who did not allow their children to cross the road alone: “Parents’ fears are justified by our high child pedestrian death rate. We must reengineer our roads to make them safer and change drivers’ attitudes.”

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