A FEW months ago an initiative was launched to try to persuade more children to walk to school. The motives behind it were twofold. Firstly to reduce congestion and fumes and secondly to try to persuade some of the flabby, lethargic youngsters of today to get a bit of exercise - even if it was just a leisurely walk to school instead of mummy's four wheel drive.

The campaign, fairly half-hearted it must be said, was a failure as it was fighting parents' understandable fears about the safety of their children.

Ironically the increase in cars on the school run is more likely to result in an accident and the resultant fumes more likely to damage the long term health of children.

But this week came figures which showed that British children are the second safest in the world. Only Sweden has a lower rate of non-medical child deaths.

High profile cases, such as the murder of Sarah Payne, give the impression that our children face a grave risk of abduction every time they set foot out of the door without supervision.

In fact such cases are rare but they receive much wider publicity with a growing number of media outlets. Latest figures show that in Britain 6.1 children per 100,000 died from an intentional or unintentional injury. Sweden's figure was 5.2 but Germany recorded 8.3, France 9.1 and America 14.1. Britain had a rate of 0.8 deaths per 100,000 children from intentional injury (abuse, neglect or murder) compared to 1.58 in France.

Britain's streets are among the safest in the world. People are better educated about risks and safety procedures. Sometimes it's better to just let children be children.