Only 4% of citizens in our country fasten the seat belt on the back seat;50.000 were caught last year driving under the influence of alcohol. Results can be terrifying. If WE can change at least some of these statistics, our first step would be made!
The ideas
The number of accidents is rising each year and it represents an issue that has to be solved. Statistics say that a majority of accidents are caused by students. Teens often don't fasten their seatbelts, drive under influence of drugs and alcohol and are often caught using their mobile devices while driving. Who could influence more students than us, students ourselves. We decided to do something to stop so many lives disappearing around us every year. We got a very big support from our community, that suffers from frequent losses caused by terrible traffic accidents. We, seven students from Gymnasium Jovan Jovanović Zmaj and our teacher, with the help of school management, engineers of traffic and driving schools, started project entitled "Arrive alive". Our main goal is to educate people in our community, to make sure they know what consequences may be. By tackling the issue from a different point of view, we think we can reach more out, get people's attention and obtain some results. Life is priceless and no one can undo things that happened. In our country people say: "It is better to prevent than to treat,..".That is why we want to start from beginning, affect future drivers and educate current pedestrians. Our campaign has just started, here in Novi Sad with this project and we hope it will spread out and encourage others to value more their own and others' lives.
The initiatives
We did a research and asked our friends to answer some questions honestly. "How often do you fasten your seat belt?","Do you cross a street with headphones on?" and similar ones. Results were terrifying. So many of them gave answers which explained why there are so many accidents. Obviously not so many of them were familiar with consequences in the correct way. A lot of them told us that their parents have always been telling them how to behave in traffic and what is safe and what is not, but finally their parents themselves don't follow those instructions. In schools children are not taught enough about traffic safety. We organized a campaign to prevent dangerous behaviors. We made posters which are now in our school hallway and every day inform students about traffic rules and laws, problems (risky behaviors) and possible solutions. In our school hall we organized a lecture where we presented our work and ideas.
We showed our presentation with pictures that we made in past months, statistics that we collected and called some of our students, who suffered from car accidents, to talk about their experience. That lecture was very important to us, because then we saw the first reactions from students. They were amazed by the statistics that we collected, photos that we made and stories that our students shared. Then we announced the date when we planed to call some experts to talk about risky behaviors and to educate students how to act properly in traffic. Engineer of traffic and workers from a local driving school came to our school to give us support on our project and take a part in it. Many students from our school were interested and came to lecture.
They were able to see the pictures of consequences of inappropriate behaviors, scientifical statistics and to learn what can go wrong. Then, we all had a chance to learn how to fasten the seatbelt properly and to wear special glasses that simulate how people see under the influence of alcohol and drugs. All students had a great time, learned many things and were inspired to join us on our mission. We all started a new chapter in our lives, hoping that we will have an opportunity to continue it!
