Secure safety for children

VINNYTSIA. — Participants of the nationwide investigation-competition “Attention! Children on the road!” which has taken place two months ago with an aim to prevent children’s motor-road traumas, have summed up the results. By joint efforts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Chief State Motor Inspection and the Nationwide Association of Drivers of Ukraine have changed 5,000 of road signs, 60 kilometers of turnstile-fences and completed 450 kilometers of road marking. The DAI subdivisions also checked the technical state of the school buses and whether their drivers followed the road traffic rules. Unfortunately, the law-enforcing authorities have ascertained facts violation of traffic rules in over 360 cases, committed by the drivers of child-carrying vehicles. There is another discouraging fact: 36 percent of school buses have been over 10 years in the exploitation, each seventh is out of order.

Broad prevention work completed within the framework of this investigation has significantly improved the situation with traffic accidents: number of traffic accident with under-aged involved reduced by 8 percent within the mentioned period.

Dnipropetrovsk, Transkarpattia, Kirovohrad and Kherson oblast have had the best results. The department of the State Motor Inspection in Dnipropetrovsk oblast came to be the leader, Vinnytsia region took the second and Kherson oblast — the third places. But there was also a sad thing in the statistics: one has not managed to reduce number of children involved in traffic accidents: this sort of facts has even increased by 9 percent.

As the head of the prevention department at the DAI MVS Hennadii Hrebniov has admitted, too little attention is paid to studying of traffic rules. There is neither single methodical base, nor standard visual aids: this by no means favors the reduction of traffic tragedies where school-children are involved. Therefore the State Motor Inspection is planning to publish the text-book on culture on the road for preschool-aged children and for primary school pupils. In addition, now it can be appropriate to implement of many-stage system of learning the traffic rules: up to providing the school graduates with a driver’s license of both A and B categories, as it exists in the European countries. Of course, one will have to retrain corresponding teachers. It is offered to give original pedestrian and bicyclist licenses to the primary school pupils in order to encourage them to learn the traffic rules. The law-enforcing department has sent a complex of such offers to the Ministry of Education and Science. It is a pity that there has been no reaction to these initiatives yet. After the action was over, the employees of the DAI have aired several initiatives. In particular, head of the DAI Department of the Vinnytsia region Lieutenant-Colonel Mykola Symanchuk offered the local authorities to re-register scooters and motorbikes with an engine having up to 50 cubic centimeters: this offer is being considered at the oblast council’s session. In case it is approved, the road guards hope to stop in some way the increase in number of stealing of this sort of vehicles and hope to influence in some way the terrific number of accidents in which they are involved, for the “motor-ponies” will receive a registered license and even a state license number! They also plan to start giving a motorbike (scooter) owner’s card with a full information about the owner. In order to receive it, the claimants will be obliged to go through a corresponding studying course and pass exams on traffic rules. Of course, this is a serious claim for success and spreading of the leading experience over the whole Ukrainian territory.