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Young World
Road safety rules are important
S. ANIL RADHAKRISHNAN
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Children and young adults are vulnerable to accidents on the road.
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Photo: S. R. Raghunathan
Follow traffic rules: For better safety on the road.
Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organisation, in a school road-safety handbook, clearly states “Children and young adults are among the most vulnerable to road accidents. Every hour of the day, forty youngsters die as a result of the road traffic crashes.” The 28-page ’Children and Road Safety,’ hand book was brought out under the Road Safety Awareness Programme of the World-Bank aided Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) being implem
ented in the State.
At risk
The handbook aims at educating children on road safety and saving them from the growing epidemic of road accidents. With road accidents a leading cause of death and injury to children, the book can be used as a guide to teach children about road safety. Teaching children about the hidden dangers on roads and ensuring their safety in complex traffic situations are major challenges faced by traffic authorities and road safety experts.
In the note for teachers and parents, it has been pointed out that the most vulnerable age group among children is 4-10 years. “Children lack skills and experience in almost everything they do. Their ability to perceive or anticipate dangers is very limited.”Each subject in the book is explained in simple terms with important points highlighted and supported with pictorial illustrations. The topics on road safety are covered in question- answer format. The subjects have been covered under topics like ‘When you are on the road’, ‘When it is dark’, ‘While you play’, ‘When you are boarding a bus’, ‘When you are travelling by a car’ and ‘When you ride a bicycle’. Published by Sony Thomas, Principal Consultant for Sherwood Consultants, the book has been dedicated to all those children who lost their lives on road in accidents. “Parents should make a deliberate attempt to train their children on road safety,” he says.
Local flavour
Education Minister M.A. Baby who released the book suggested that a Malayalam version of the book be brought out for children studying in the Malayalam medium. As a part of the project school road safety forums were also set up in 64 schools across nine districts in the State.The schools selected for implementing the project were located on the stretches where the roads were developed under the KSTP. These were in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts. The forums have been effective in identifying school road-safety issues and finding solutions to them. Delivering talks in the school assembly about the road-safety theme, organising monthly road-safety competitions and preparation of year planners, monthly newsletters and school road-safety magazines have made the forums a favourite among students. They have been effective in creating a road-safety organisational structure for the school and evaluating and monitoring school road-safety activities.The forum comprises the principal or headmaster as the chairman or chairperson, representatives of the parent-teacher association, school road safety officer, junior road safety officer, deputy junior road safety officer and road crossing wardens.Sony Thomas, Project Consultant, Road Safety Awareness Programme, KSTP, says, that the forums had been effective in creating a road sense among the children and reducing the accident rate.“We have tried to replicate the forums set up in the U.K. by giving a local touch and the results are encouraging. The programme should be carried on for three years at a stretch to make it sustainable,” he says.
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