We did a project called "Safety-year-us". In the period from 2010 to 2013, 770 pedestrians aged 65 and over were injured in traffic accidents in Belgrade.
We wanted to improve traffic safety for elderly people.
Tes Idées
This is the third time that Traffic-Technical School Zemun-Belgrade, is participating in this competition. This time, we did a project called "Safety-year-us" (in Serbian, the name has two meanings: Safety for years! And Safety is pleasant to us!). The idea for this project was taken from the official statistics of the Traffic Safety Agency. According to the census of Belgrade, 16.4% of the population is over 65 years old. According to the Traffic Police, of the total number of traffic accidents with injured persons in Belgrade, 22% are accidents with pedestrians over 65 years old, while pedestrian mortality for the same age group is 49%. These results are certainly worrying. In the period from 2010 to 2013, 770 pedestrians over 65 years old were injured in traffic accidents in Belgrade. It is interesting that older pedestrian women suffer more often than men (55% compared to 45%). Those in the age group between 70-74 years killed in road accidents are usually with heavy and light injuries; while in the evening, mortality of pedestrians is highest in the 75-79 year old age group. Zemun municipality, where our school is located, is one of the municipalities in Belgrade where elderly citizens are most affected. That answers WHY we have chosen our campaign.
Tes initiatives
With this project, we wanted to achieve improvement of safety for elderly citizens in the municipality of Zemun. The campaign included:
•Preparation of local communities and authorities, exploring the problem of the suffering of elderly citizens (this part of the work was done by teachers and the local government, in particular, the President of the Municipal Assembly of Zemun, in order to get support for the project)
• At the Zemun pensioner associations, we gave meaningful and practical education to senior citizens (done by the teacher, Biljana Kordic)
• The attendees were welcomed by the president of the Municipal Assembly and representatives of the Agency for Occupational Traffic Safety
• An interactive performance
• Then, an interactive workshop with senior citizens where they conveyed to each other their experiences and recommendations for safe passage through traffic areas
•We handed them flyers which, along with the Agency for Occupational Traffic Safety, explained dangerous situations for senior citizens, and guidelines for safer traffic behavior
•We presented them with commemorative gifts to remember (keychains)
•Reporting about our project was presented on Happy Television on several occasions
• As part of our Facebook page, our students put up and shared a photo taken in the streets of Zemun about unsafe movement of senior citizens to show their grandparents and older neighbors, etcetera, as well as sharing fliers with them on the safe participation of senior citizens in traffic, from the Agency for Occupational Traffic Safety; they were also photographed with them.
• Our elderly friends loved our show! They were pleased by our attention and care! They were surprised how many new ideas they have learned, especially about wearing light colours for better visibility. Being old and wise, they thought they knew everything about traffic. Some were surprised how their eyesight and reaction speed weakened over the years.
They enjoyed our artistic part of the campaign, and promised to spread the word about traffic safety and share the printed materials. Grannies and gramps enjoyed extra time spent with their grandchildren.
• We sincerely hope that our new friends will apply their newly acquired knowledge in the future, for a long time to come! We also hope that the next generation will follow in our steps and take care of their elderly grandmothers, grandfathers, neighbors etcetera.
