Just two weeks remain until the end of the academic year for our schoolchildren and students, and the long-awaited summer holidays will begin. However, holidays are always a challenging period not only for parents but also, undoubtedly, for the staff of the State Automobile Inspectorate. As a rule, the majority of road traffic accidents involving children occur during the period when they spend most of their free time outdoors.
To date, 11 accidents involving children have been registered in the Vitebsk region, resulting in 1 child fatality and 10 children sustaining various injuries.
Children outdoors do not always perceive danger and exhibit inconsistent actions. Drivers, aware of this, must treat the appearance of a child on the roadway or even at the edge of the pavement as an alarm signal, as a child may unexpectedly change direction.
It is necessary to teach children to "switch to street mode," slow down, stop, and pause for at least a short while before entering the roadway.
In everyday life, children are accustomed to acting "automatically": I see, I do. Such habits are unacceptable on the street. Even good skills demonstrated by a child on the roadway do not guarantee their safety if they misjudge the situation and lose vigilance for the 10-15 seconds required to cross the road.
Parents must constantly set an example in this regard – a single incorrect action by them, observed by the child or performed together with the child, can negate previously acquired knowledge and skills. Therefore, when you are with a child, there should be no haste, no conversations on unrelated topics on the roadway, and certainly no violations of the traffic regulations.
In anticipation of the holidays for students, and also with the aim of preventing child road traffic injuries, increasing parental responsibility for children's safety during their transportation in vehicles, and ensuring the safe travel of schoolchildren to and from educational institutions, the State Automobile Inspectorate will conduct a road safety decade in the Vitebsk region from May 15 to May 25, 2019.