To put the real children – with their lived experiences and their playful ways of being in the world – at the front of discussions about road safety is going to take a move away from traditional ways of doing engineering. 

When we do the accounting of safety in ways other than counting in numbers, we are honouring the children who are lost. Remembering them in their uniqueness. We also take on board what they can teach us about joy and playfulness.

A 2018 art installation at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, with painted silhouettes of 50 children lost on Cape Town’s roads in the previous year is a reminder of loss – and of what we can gain by remembering joy and possibility.