Road Safety Observer

Initiative details

More than 6000 children up to the age of 14 died between 2011 and 2020 in road collisions in the European Union. In 2023 there were 1,778 road crashes involving children in Poland
aged 0-14: 48 ​​children died and 1,832 were injured. About 45.7% of all road crashes victims in Poland are vulnerable
road traffic users. Many of them involve children in rural areas.

Initiative date

Who was/is your target audience?

Children 0-16

Topic

Education in school or in community organizations

Organisation details

Malopolska Road Safety Council
Local Public authority
Poland
Malopolska Region

Contact name

Katarzyna Dobrzanska Junco

Telephone number

+48 663205779

Website link

Project activities

If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role.

Malopolska Road Safety Council: main organizer, creator of materials and content
Malopolska Road Transport Directorate: coorganizer, main supporter in the exercise 'See that you cannot be seen".
European Federation of Road Traffic Victims FEVR: supporter in Vision Zero exercise (in theoretical part).

Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented.

BRD Observer: the program is aimed at children from grades 7-8 of primary schools as vulnerable road users. The entire program consists of two main parts: the theoretical part carried out in classes (approx. 45 minutes) and the practical part carried out before school (approx. 45 minutes). The first part consists of three modules. The first one concerns understanding the causes of road crashes, with particular emphasis on young people, the concept of risk, risk assessment and its minimization in road traffic. The second module concerns understanding the concept of sustainable mobility and sustainable transport; mechanisms and relationships between transport/road traffic/health/ecology are indicated. The third module is related to understanding how social competences influence the behavior of young people in road traffic (mainly conformism and peer pressure, assertiveness). All this is carried out in the form of workshops and practical classes (case studies, student worksheets, group work, brainstorming). The second part is a practical exercise "See that you cannot be seen", carried out outside the school, using Road Transport Inspection vehicles. This is a practical exercise in showing blind spots. The project is aimed at children mainly in rural areas of the region of Malopolska.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_pF_4k4-OI&t=1s

In terms of implementation, what worked well and what challenges did you need to overcome?

What worked well:
- communication wth schools and management
-realization of the program
-evaluation
Challenges to overcome:
-low spaces of parking lots near schools to locate the trucks
-technical problems to overcome with theoretical part
-financing - Road Traffic Inspection main activities in road traffic control so the project is additional activity for the entity. But is has been planed minimum to implement 1 / month in the region.

Evaluation

Please summarise how you have evaluated the initiative’s impact (e.g. social media reach, survey, feedback forms, statistics).

-paper evaluation - all participants are subjected to evaluation (surveys) of the program, the results are made public
- all teachers involved in the project also fill the surveys. they are also given support materials to make second evaluation after some time and measure the effectiveness
-number of displays in internet of the movie, social media reach

What has been the effect of the activities?

Through the practical exercises, we want to make young people aware of the situation with road traffic hazards, especially those involving heavy and large vehicles such as those controlled by the Road Transport Inspectorate. We also want to show what are the risks and possible consequences as well as where the truck's blind spots are. We perform such a practical exercise so that young people can see that a truck driver is not able to notice children in the mirror everywhere.

Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety.

Through the projects and practical exercises, we want to make young people aware of the situation with road traffic hazards, especially those involving heavy and large vehicles such as those controlled by the Road Transport Inspectorate. We also want to show what are the risks and possible consequences as well as where the truck's blind spots are. We perform such a practical exercise so that young people can see that a truck driver is not able to notice children in the mirror everywhere.

How have you shared information about your project and its results?

We have shared the results on our websites as well as on road safety portal on-line discussion available here: https://www.prawodrogowe.pl/informacje/news-tygodnia/dzis-06-06-o-11-00-dyskusja-na-ratuszowej

Supporting materials