One of the most important elements of road safety education is knowing the difference between risky and responsible behavior – this helps us to make better choices.
The ideas
Students from class 4PDC at the Juan Comenius School in Valencia were able to quickly identify the issue they wanted to address in their road safety initiative. It was the one that was most relevant to them and their peers – risky and responsible behavior on mopeds.
In order to identify the main causes of accidents, they spoke with peers and observed traffic in their immediate environment. It didn’t take long to see that neither mopeds nor cars respect traffic rules, and they don’t respect each other’s space on the road either! Through their discussions, they concluded that this behavior does not come from a simple disregard for the law – it’s also a lack of education. They decided to do something to help.
The initiatives
They wanted to highlight the biggest dangers to road safety, and also draw a clear distinction between risky and responsible behavior while driving. They used two methods to communicate. First, they created a PowerPoint presentation about the appropriate use of mopeds, which identified various dangers like drugs and alcohol, as well as safe behavior like respecting traffic signs and speed limits.
Second, they created two funny animated videos about a young person who goes to a party and later drives home. In the first video, he drinks alcohol and takes various other risks, ending up in the hospital with lots of broken bones. In the other one, he doesn’t drink and makes it home safely. Together, the videos leave no question about how to behave safely!
