This project is mainly educational. It is intended for people of all ages. It deals with some of the most frequent reasons for traffic accidents and irresponsible behavior of some participants in traffic.
The ideas
We are witnessing an increasing number of traffic accidents every day. Our youth takes the biggest part in it. The idea was created by the need to educate young people and work preventively on future generations.
Dealing with major problems in our city in the past years, we have noticed what the problems that inexperienced drivers are going through are and we have investigated these problems in our project (risky behaviour, safety of motorcyclists riding without helmet, drivers under the influence of alcohol or psychoactive substances in traffic...). Also, we interviewed the citizens of our town, collected information from older and more experienced drivers and also used some information from the Internet. We interviewed 30 citizens who were asked to answer ten questions. Their answers helped us to pay attention to critical issues. The results of the survey are shown in the attachment.
The survey results were a base for our practical part of the project.
The problems to work on were identified and chosen by the students and were divided into 7 main topics:
1. Traffic signs and responsible behavior on the street/road.
2. Speed regulations in traffic (regarding speed limits and restrictions, wild riding, risky behavior).
3. Wearing helmets by cyclists.
4. Using seatbelts in traffic.
5. The impact of using mobile phones and digital technologies in traffic.
6. The influence of psychoactive substances in traffic.
7. The influence of alcohol on participants in traffic.
The initiatives
The main goal of the project is to train students to behave safely in traffic. The target group for us is all participants in traffic, mainly the first grade students and young future drivers.
Student Activities: As a group of 66 students we decided to divided ourselves in 7 small groups and each one had a main topic for research. We collected information on the Internet, from state authorities and older participants in traffic. We also made a research through the available literature, creating wall posts, making power point presentations in Serbian and English, hosting a lecture on safety in traffic and the main causes of traffic accidents; also participating in the simulation of a traffic accident and providing first aid to the injured.
For the first topic, ''Traffic signs and responsible behavior on the street’’, we investigated which traffic signs exist and how each pedestrian should behave on the street.
For the second topic, ’Driving speed (in accordance with traffic regulations or violating the regulations, wild riding, risky behavior)’, we interviewed a number of citizens learning about regulations on speed limits on roads. We also watched various videos to see the consequences and fatal outcomes on roads due to careless driving (speeding).
‘’Use of helmets for cyclists’’ and ‘’Using seatbelts in traffic’’ are two more interesting topics that we chose because of the presence of the most frequent traffic violations in our city. Due to the increased number of people killed in traffic accidents in recent years, there was an increased interest in checking the consequences of not wearing helmets by motorcyclists and not wearing seatbelts in cars by all passengers. We tried to explain and describe the benefits of wearing a helmet and how the helmets can save their lives in the event of an accident, as well as wearing seatbelts by all passengers in a car.
In three more topics, we highlighted the bad effects of different psychoactive substances on the behavior of drivers and pedestrians on the streets/roads.
We shared our research results between us through the presentations and panels which are shown in the attachment.
The practical part of the project was planned for the beginning of May: a traffic accident simulation and providing first aid to the injured persons. Due to weather conditions, the practical part of the project was postponed to September 2019, when we mark/celebrate ‘’A day without cars’’. On that day local authority officials/representatives, Police, Firefighters, Ambulance staff, Red Cross members/volunteers, children from kindergartens, elementary school students are always glad to take an active part in such activities. This simulation is planned to be a traffic accident of a bus and a passenger vehicle. The police would secure the site of the accident, and then the firefighters would come to help the driver to get out of the badly damaged vehicle. Emergency doctors would also be there, and they would be helped by the members of the Red Cross Organization in providing first aid to the injured passengers on the bus.
The video attached to this presentation is a part of a recorded simulation of the traffic accident that was organized a few years ago. It provoked positive reactions and effects and, hopefully, contributed to the reduction in the number of accidents in which young people participated.
We believe that our project will make people more aware of the importance of traffic signs behaving in accordance with traffic regulations and therefore make them show responsible and safe behavior on the roads and in traffic, and always be aware of the negative consequences caused by negligent and irresponsible behavior which could lead to serious traffic accidents.
