Road Safety Contest

Nowadays the traffic in many cities is so intense that the problem of road safety has become one of the most important issues. In spite of numerous preventive measures the number of casualties of road accidents is still high. Unfortunately, also children are found among the victims. It is very often lack or insufficient knowledge of the road safety rules which is the cause of an accident.

In order to address this important subject the UBC Commission on Transportation organised in November 2007 a competition entitled "Road Safety Contest". The TransCom wanted to award interesting projects aimed at raising children's awareness of road safety issues, improving knowledge of road signs and the ability to foresee dangers on the road and assess difficult situations. The contest was addressed to primary schools from the Baltic Sea Region. The competition task consisted in presenting the most interesting, complex and original project on road safety education for children aged 7-12.

Member cities could submit different kinds of projects, including campaigns promoting road safety among pupils, road safety lessons, development of teaching methods and teaching aids, courses for child pedestrians, cycle trainings for children, etc.

Project proposals were sent from 10 cities of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. The international jury chose three best projects from Chojnice (Poland), Gdynia (Poland) and Klaipeda (Lithuania) which were awarded 1000 euro each. The initiatives awarded are scheduled for the school year 2007/2008.

The Road Safety Programme implemented by Primary School No. 3 from Chojnice includes road safety lessons conducted by police officers, bicycle lessons and excursions, conducting bicycle driving license exams, art and sports activities, road safety contest for all primary schools from Chojnice county, and other activities. Education and prevention project "Live safely" carried out by Primary School No. 21 from Gdynia includes among others preparing mock-ups of pupils' way to school, educational sessions with police officers, tests, quiz-games and knowledge tournaments, children's staging and drama projects regarding road safety, visiting dangerous places in the city area, designing a reflection mark. The project on Road Safety submitted by Klaipeda's "Gilijos" Primary School encompasses after-school activities for children, teaching road signs and road safety rules, explaining the importance of using reflectors in the dark, organising drawing, poster and essay competition, meetings with police officers, watching road safety instructional films, etc.