Hold my hand

It’s a balmy summer evening on NSW’s Central Coast. The day’s scorching heat still hangs in the air while the persistent hum of cicadas provide the soundtrack reminiscent of Australian summer. It is 5.55pm and the McLaughlin family are bundling their three young children down to the beach. By 6pm, their lives would be forever changed.

It is almost eight years since this life-changing night on January 6 in 2014 when four year old Tom McLaughlin, bubbling with excitement to ride his new surfboard, and in an unfamiliar environment, stepped unexpectedly from the grassy verge and into the path of an oncoming 4WD.

Road trauma is still the most common cause of death for Australian children1, having taken the lives of 430 innocent children just like Tom since 2014.

Since 2014, Tom’s mother Michelle McLaughlin, Founder and CEO of Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation, has been on a mission to change this tragic statistic. She has facilitated the installation of signs in 63 Local Government Areas around Australia, reminding millions of holidaymakers and locals to hold their child’s hand, and slow down.

Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation champions pedestrian road safety for children, educating the wider community around how to keep children safe around roads.

Recalling the paralysing early days following Tom’s passing, Michelle is now looking to expand the remit of the Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation to support grieving families in that particularly difficult first year. Michelle is establishing special Road Trauma Grief Support Packages for families who suffer the unimaginable tragedy of losing a child to road trauma. She is calling on corporate sponsors and philanthropists to help Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation raise $150,000 to fund the 12-month long care packages, each containing vouchers for child care, cleaning, domestic, and cooking services - filling a gap felt firsthand by Michelle.

“The first year after Tom’s death was the most difficult. I just couldn’t function. You are relying on extended family and friends to help with the day-to-day of keeping the household going - but not everybody has such support.”

The death of a child is considered the worst stressor a person can go through. Studies have found that bereaved parents, particularly mothers, are at an increased risk of depression, anxiety, PTSD, C-PTSD (Complex PTSD), suicide, panic disorders, substance abuse, immune and cardiovascular disease as well as cancers2 .

“My hope with launching the Road Trauma Grief Service Packages is to make walking that first year even a tiny bit easier for affected families, better supporting this extremely vulnerable group.”

With the Christmas holiday season here, Australia’s regional towns are expected to be busier than ever, increasing the likelihood of road crashes. McLaughlin is giving a timely reminder about pedestrian safety and calling on Local Government Areas across the country to install critical safety signage in areas of high pedestrian activity. Michelle McLaughlin says, “My message to caregivers is simple - always talk to your children about road safety, hold their hands until they are 10, and be particularly vigilant when you are on holiday or in new environments.

“My message to Local Government areas is also simple - if you are not already participating in the Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation’s child pedestrian safety campaigns, I urge you to consider doing so. The fatality and serious injury statistics speak for themselves. Working together can only make our communities safer for our most precious road users - children - particularly around areas of high pedestrian and vehicular activity.” Emeritus Professor Ann Williamson, of the UNSW Sydney’s Transport and Road Safety Research Group, is in agreement. “Both drivers and local councils need to be on high alert for the safety of young pedestrians. We are coming up to a busy time of year, and an awareness campaign like that of Little Blue Dinosaur is so important. We know from our research that child pedestrians can move unpredictably and their smaller size makes them harder for drivers to see. We can do more to ensure that we keep child pedestrians safe,” says Ann Williamson.

For more information on The Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit the littlebluedinosaur.org

Children under 10 need to hold an adult’s hand when near a busy road - it is as important as putting on a seatbelt.

[1] https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/

health/injuries. [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841012/

Drivers need to slow down around busy areas and be extra vigilant when parking and/or crossing driveways.

In general, children find it harder to judge the direction of sounds, the speed and distance of oncoming vehicles. They are still learning and developing the abilities required to identify safe crossings and anticipate driver behaviour.