Pedestrians, especially children, are among the most vulnerable active groups in traffic. One of the major causes of death and disability is pedestrian and children injuries. Therefore, it is important to prevent these injuries, which requires educational strategies and implementation of scientific-practical interventions. This study aimed to investigate the effect of educational intervention on safe crossing along the street among students using Children's Traffic Park in Yazd, Iran.

This interventional study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design. This study included 66 elementary students (1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades) who were selected by random sampling from schools in Yazd, Iran, during the academic year of 2018-19. The intervention consisted of theoretical and practical training in the Children's Traffic Park. The data were collected using a 12-item checklist assessing the safe crossing of the street. Moreover, the data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and a paired two-sample Student's t-Test. Ethics code: IR.SSU.SPH.REC.1397.055

In total, 50% of the students were male with a mean age of 7.65±1.36 years. The minimum level of respecting safe behaviors was related to passing through the crosswalks (62.1%) and pedestrian overpasses (66.7%). Therefore, it was revealed that more than 60% of the students did not comply with these safety behaviors. The mean±SD scores of respecting safe behaviors when crossing the street were 9.5±1.75 and 9.86±1.41 before and after the intervention, respectively. The results also showed a significant increase in the scores of respecting safe behavior when crossing the street among students after the intervention (P<0.006).

According to the obtained results, educational intervention using children's traffic park had effects on the safe crossing of the students from the street. Therefore, it is suggested that this intervention be implemented as a framework for developing educational programs to train schoolchildren regarding crossing the street safely.