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Duration 00:31

SPLINK – Jon Pertwee

‘SPLINK’ was a slogan aimed at improving road safety for children, and came a year after Dave Prowse had first played the Green Cross Man.

The film dates from 1976 and stars the late Jon Pertwee, (a well-known actor who had played the role of Doctor Who), explaining to young children how to cross the road.

The Green Cross Code was introduced in 1971, using the ‘SPLINK’ drill but rather unsurprisingly children found it too complicated.

However, this film and others featuring simpler messages did have an impact on accident figures. In 1975 the number of children reported killed on the roads had fallen to 505, the lowest since the 1950s. By 2003 the figure was as low as 171 children. But with as many as 3,929 children being seriously injured on the roads each year, the work of road safety campaigns is far from done.

Transcription

Jon Pertwee:  Here’s how to remember the Green Cross Code. First find a Safe place to stop.

Stand on the Pavement near the kerb.

Look all around for traffic, and listen.

If traffic is coming, then let it pass.

When there is no traffic near, walk straight across the road.

Keep looking and listening for traffic while you cross.

Well now we’ll all remember the Green Cross Code, and use it. Splink!