HO CHI MINH CIty, Vietnam - September 8, 2017

The Walk This Way pedestrian safety program carried out a needs assessment and conducted baseline research at 37 primary and secondary schools along a planned bus corridor in Ho Chi Minh City, in order to understand the potential problems child pedestrians will encounter during its construction and execution. The research focused on target areas of District 1, 5, and 6 that the new bus corridor will run through and assessed the need for school zone modifications in the area.

Assessment topics focused on the physical surroundings of the schools, students’ knowledge of road safety rules and behaviors, the behavior of road users in the school zones, and the number of road crash injuries and fatalities that occur around the schools. The assessment found that, among other key findings, 33% of surveyed students had been involved in road crashes within the last six months, with 61% reporting having been injured and 31% needing hospitalization. According to observation, 100% of the roads around the schools lacked rumble strips and flash warning lights and 32.6% of the roads around the school gates lacked sidewalks. In addition, only 20% of students practiced all of the safety rules (stop, look, listen, and cross) when crossing the road. Walk This Way will use these findings to inform its program development at target schools.