Tulsa Volunteers Stress Safety On Walk Or Bike To School Day

Hundreds of children in the Tulsa area took part in International Walk or Bike To School day Wednesday. 

The day is annual effort to raise awareness about safely when walking and riding a bicycle to school. 

At Tulsa's Mark Twain Elementary School at 541 South 43rd West Avenue representatives from Safe Kids, FedEx, Humble Sons Bike Company and the Tulsa Police Department are walking with students heading to school. 

Elsewhere across Tulsa and other communities in northeastern Oklahoma, volunteers are participating in various activities to highlight safety. 

According to the walkbiketoschool.org in 2009, 203,000 children ages 15 and younger were injured in motor vehicles crashes; 15,000 of those injured were pedestrians. 

The website safekids.org says unintentional pedestrian injuries are the fifth leading cause of injury-related death in the United States for children ages 5 to 19. Teens are now at greatest risk. 

Safe Kids says teens have a death rate twice that of younger children and account for half of all child pedestrian deaths.

Mark Twain students also interacted with police and firefighters and looked over their patrol cars and fire trucks. 

Safety basics was also a part of the Wednesday's lesson. 

"It reminds them that they need to cross at the cross walks, they need to look both ways before they cross the street, just reinforces some of the things the older kids may know and it does teach the little kids things that they dont know," said Beth Washington, Safe Kids coordinator.