Many people associate traffic accidents with high speeds and highways, but many accidents take place in a different context – at slow speeds, while parking. 14 students from the school SPŠD, a.s. in Prague chose to address this issue exactly.
The ideas
The students from SPŠD, a.s. wanted to do something to improve road safety in their area and realized there was plenty to do just outside of their school. While the roads in the area are not very busy, there are many cars that park on them and this presents a danger – especially to the younger children in the nearby primary school. During the class brainstorming session, the group realized how important it is to know the rules of the road as pedestrians and to follow them. This is even more important for younger children who have less experience as pedestrians. They need to have these rules at the forefront of their minds when they are moving about on the streets. However, this responsibility can’t be left just to parents and teachers. The whole community needs to take part in educating the youngest citizens and helping them to stay safe.
The initiatives
The students decided that they would take on the responsibility by helping the younger children to safely enter and leave the school in the mornings and afternoons. To ensure that these older students were truly committed to helping the younger ones, and that they understood and believed in the road safety cause, the 14 students who had the original idea for the initiative conducted interviews with other students who were interested in volunteering. They made sure that everyone knew the road safety rules – especially those for pedestrians. They also made sure that everyone understood that the city police would be in the area to help them if a situation came up where they didn’t know what to do. With students, teachers and local police involved in the initiative, and parents and relatives supporting it, the students had designed a programme that served two purposes. One for road safety, and one for community building!
