Hundreds of lives could be saved if parents rehearsed the walk to school with their children before the start of the autumn term, the AA has warned.
The need is particularly great for those starting secondary school as 11-year-olds are over 50 per cent more likely to be injured on the roads than ten-year-olds, said the AA Motoring Trust.
It added that while primary pupils who walk to school will be accompanied by an adult, secondary school children go alone.
In some places, the walk to the bus stop can be as long and as dangerous as the walk to school in other areas. It is only in trips by car that secondary school pupils are accompanied by parents, but only 21 per cent of secondary school pupils are driven to school, compared with 38 per cent of primary school children.
In 2003, there were 1,366 accidents involving 11-year- olds on Britain's roads compared with 891 for ten-year-olds.
AA Motoring Trust road safety head Andrew Howard said: " Schoolchildren are in a rush to show their peers how grown up they are and not being chaperoned to school is one way to prove it.
" However, parents should walk the route with their children during the holidays to find the safest way and point out the dangers."
