A survey conducted in schools across India has given children the opportunity to rate their parents on road safety.

The findings reveal that one in four parents use their mobile phone while driving while one in five parents violate traffic lights at intersections.

A difference in compliance was discovered between the capital city of Delhi and “Tier 1” cities, compared with smaller “Tier 2” cities. Researchers say this could signify that higher traffic regulation by the police leads to greater enforcement and awareness among parents.

“Most critical aspect from this study is that the parents are rarely realizing that their kids are watching,” stated the study report. “Yes, they are the kids who so want to emulate their parents and they are seeing their parents rampantly talking on mobile while driving. As a society, the habit thus needs to be improved to ensure that we can save the 12 percent deaths happening due to use of mobile phone while driving.”

The First Step report was published by the Indian Road Safety Campaign (IRSC) and Ford.