If you work nine to five and drive a car, then the summer months on the roads are the best. There's nothing quite like it. You can hit the snooze button at least twice in the morning and take your time getting ready for work by sitting in the lounge in your jim-jams, eating your first meal of the day and catching up with your good old friends on GMTV.



Dressed and ready for work you get in your car, wind down the window and put on your favourite radio station. You feel calm and relaxed, smiling to yourself when there's no queue at the traffic lights and after what feels like just seconds on the motorway, you arrive at work 10 minutes early.

But sitting down to your desk you realise something. The calendar you bought in the January sales, Nice places to visit in England, is a month behind. The inevitable month of September has arrived and instantly your frown lines have returned. No more lie-ins or watching TV in the morning because soon hundreds of parents will be taking to the roads for the start of the school run.

According to a recent study carried out by which.co.uk, nearly 70 per cent of motorists want the school run banned to ease congestion during rush hour traffic. Over the years, more parents have taken to the roads in a bid to make sure their children get to and from school safely. But with so many vehicles on the roads during busy periods, are peoples' lives being put at risk from possible road accidents?

Statistics have shown that nearly one in five cars on the road at 8.50am are involved in the school run, with three million drivers taking their children to school every day and 4.5 million taking them once or twice a week.

Car accidents are bound to occur more frequently as motorists hurry to dodge the morning traffic and make it on time for work or for an appointment. The danger of people hurrying to get from one place to another can have serious effects with motorists suffering personal injuries in car accidents and making subsequent injury compensation claims against the driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash.

Most commonly, people involved in road accidents will suffer from a whiplash injury. This could be caused by cars shunting into each other at a set of traffic lights or by a speeding car on the motorway that hasn't braked in time before hitting the car in front. With such risks involved when travelling by car, why is it that some parents feel their children might be safer than they would when travelling by foot or public transport?

Motorists stuck in rush hour traffic ask this question each and every day. They will argue that when they were at school, most children would have walked, caught the bus or gone by train in the mornings. However, in this modern day the culture of fear has been pumped so much into the minds of parents that they worry their children are vulnerable to all sorts of potential dangers.

The school run is the solution for many who fear their child might be involved in a possible hit and run accident or approached by a stranger. But if a child doesn't encounter any possible risks in their journey to and from school, how can they develop their awareness to dangers?

Councillor Barbara Reid, executive member for the environment and planning for Hounslow Council, supports this query and says, "Parents think that by taking their children to school in the car they're keeping them safe.

"In fact, they could be doing them more harm by not giving them the chance to learn the necessary skills to travel safely by themselves."

Different schemes, such as The Walking Bus, have been launched to try and combat the school run, focusing on the child's mental and physical development as well as the affect of pollution to our environment from excessive road use. With so many children being driven to school, they are missing out on vital exercise which could lead to future health problems such as obesity. By walking to school, a child is more likely to remain healthy and be mentally prepared for starting a long day in the classroom.

Barbara Reid further commented, "Studies have shown that children who walk or cycle to school are more alert and ready to learn than if they were driven."

With such positive outcomes to be made from ditching the car, shouldn't more be done to promote the benefits of walking to school or going by public transport? It does appear that certain schemes are targeting some audiences, but still each morning roads are jammed with excessive traffic.

This problem might be rectified in the future. However, for the time being people travelling to work in the mornings can expect to be caught up in traffic queues all over the country. Some congestion may be caused by road accidents but the majority of traffic will be the result of the school run, which itself increases the likelihood for such accidents.

So until the next school holiday, motorists will just have to remember to set their alarm a few minutes earlier, miss their fix of morning television and leave their house with enough time to avoid being another road accident casualty.