We think that rules, posters and games are very useful for cyclists, because the need for bike safety is always real.
Tes Idées
Hello! We are from Russia. We live in the north of the country in Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic. Our school is situated in the center of the town. People in our town often use bicycles. A special event for cyclists takes place in Syktyvkar every year in June, called Bike Night. More than two thousand people take part in it. A lot of pupils in our school often use bicycles; some of them have been involved in accidents.
There are some special rules for cyclists in Russia. Teenagers can ride their bikes on the road once they reach the age of fourteen. It is necessary to wear a helmet, light-coloured or fluorescent clothing which help other road users to see cyclists in daylight and poor light, and reflective clothing or accessories (belt, arm or ankle bands) in the dark. Cyclists should obey the traffic signals, just as all other vehicles should.
We arranged a survey among the pupils of our school and asked 436 children, age 14 to 18 years old, the survey questions. The pupils answered three general questions anonymously:
1. Do you often ride a bicycle?
2. Do you follow safety measures for cyclists?
3. Have you ever been involved in an accident?
4. Do you wear clothing for cyclists?
The survey showed that 53% of pupils often ride bikes, 47% of pupils don’t follow safety measures for cyclists, 7% of pupils have been involved in accidents and 93% of pupils don’t use protective clothing for cyclists.
Tes initiatives
We think that rules, posters and games are very useful for cyclists, because the need for bike safety is always real.
We drew a special bike safety poster. We hung it on the wall next to the English classroom and wrote down the rules for cyclists. We created special Russian-English leaflets to give to the pupils in our school and we handed out more than 500 leaflets. We also played a very exciting game: pupils “travelled” to different “stations” where they had to perform interesting tasks. There were four “stations”:
1. Bicycle spare parts.
2. Road safety for cyclists.
3. Make up a story.
4. First aid.
At the first station, students attached the words ‘spare parts’ to a painted bike.
At the second station, students did a test where they had to choose the correct answer.
At the third station, students made up stories related to various pictures and choose the appropriate conclusions:
Always follow the road safety rules.
Don’t play while riding a bike.
Bike or headphones?
A cyclist should be equipped before riding.
At the fourth station, we discussed giving first aid to people who had been injured in traffic accidents. It was necessary to correctly order the steps for performing first aid:
1. To call an ambulance or ask others to.
2. To isolate the place of the accident from passing cars.
3. If the victim is unconscious, you should attempt to determine pulse and respiration. If there is no pulse or respiration, the person is turned over on his back and a heart massage and artificial ventilation of the lungs is performed.
4. If the person breaths then do not touch or turn him over before the ambulance comes. The exception is heavy bleeding and vomiting.
5. Bleeding is stopped using improvised means.
We believe that participation in the program “Your Ideas Your Initiatives” was very effective. The pupils and teachers of our school thanked us for the leaflets and games. More than 300 pupils between the ages of 9 to 18 took part in the project. It is necessary to remember road safety rules every day because this helps to prevent most road accidents.
