The mail truck is a ubiquitous symbol of Americana. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” will keep mail carriers off the road, so the Postal Service’s (USPS) motto goes.
Of course, when you have 219,000 mail trucks traveling 1.2 billion miles across the country every year, accidents are bound to happen. Which is why the USPS is launching its first-ever child safety campaign to warn children of the dangers of getting too close to delivery vehicles.
According to Kids and Cars, a child safety advocacy group that tracks statistics on non-traffic motor vehicle-related events involving children, 232 kids under the age of 15 lost their lives in 725 “noncrash” incidents in 2007. The USPS has no data of its own regarding non-traffic accidents involving its vehicles and children.
Armed with such “eye-opening statistics,” George Flood, the USPS Communications Programs Specialist for New York City, said his organization began focusing, for the first time, on accidents involving kids, after having previously tailored its safety initiatives to the public.
The USPS broadcast animated public service announcements over the summer to alert children to the risks posed by delivery vehicles, and now, with the new school year having kicked off, the USPS is taking its message directly to students in the classroom.
Elements of the campaign include a humorous two-minute animation, as well as giveaways such as posters, coloring books and stickers. The Postal Service has distributed materials targeting pre-kindergarten through second-grade schoolchildren to over 9,000 postal facilities across the country and is partnering with mail carrier unions to help deliver its message.
However, it is up to educators, Flood said, to contact their local Postmaster and arrange a program for their students with a Postal Service employee.
More information on the hazards exposed when children play near vehicles can be found at www.KidsAndCars.org. To see the USPS’s public service announcement cartoon visit qns.com.
Postal Service delivers safety message to kids
By Noah Rosenberg
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