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Children and a Driving Safety Awareness Programme by Alexandra Grigoriadis

Culture is the way we act in society; it is the way we speak, what we believe in, how we behave, our habits, and the different ways we employ, in order to enhance our humanity level and be sensitized to other people's needs, people who form what is called organized society.

Children being part of this society have a right to live in a more humanized and civilized environment. They are the world's future. We visualize having them live in a better world. A world in which living conditions will be better than the present ones. We imagine a safe world where each child will grow and progress. However, we do need to make strenuous efforts to create such an environment, because up to this point we have not been sensitized to a very important issue which causes many deaths and casualties among the children population. In Europe some good thousands of children get killed every year in traffic accidents. In four years the deaths of these children put together make up a European village or town. In other words, this village or town has disappeared from the European map. Can we still remain apathetic and indifferent against this mass slaughter? Can we not take measures to protect them? If it is not our responsibility to protect our children, whose is it then?

If children are the future of our continent, can this future come, if we have not something of value to make it happen? Should we not do something to stop this juvenile sacrifice? It is up to each one of us to take his / her share of responsibility and do something to rectify this bloody situation. By the same token, it is high times that the European Union did something powerful to help our children survive. Since each one of us needs to start offering proposals to improve the situation and halt the tragedy, we take the initiative to propose some measures, believing that the European Union will promote them and oversee their implementation:

  1. The course of driving education and safety awareness needs to be introduced in the school curriculum already at elementary levels. In its early stage the course can be part of another course so that it does not overburden an already heavy school curriculum.
  2. Car manufacturing companies must publish and distribute to their customers books including driving guidelines for children as pedestrians and passengers. They could include these instructions in the care operational manual in case that there are objections as to the cost of an additional manual. A few more pages cannot cost that much more.
  3. Car insurance companies must be asked to co-operate. They need to supply their customers with driving instructions for children as pedestrians and passengers. They also need to present the market with additional (if not special) coverage policies especially created for children.
  4. Companies involved in the children's market (e.g. food, toy, and clothing companies) need to be encouraged to participate in the effort of informing children about driving safety. One way to do it could be through handouts, brochures or even contests.
  5. Mass Media need to contribute to the awareness effort through constant information being offered and special programmes.
  6. Advertising companies need to be encouraged to participate in the whole effort as well.
  7. The European Union must develop relevant material to disseminate it to public places such as banks, hospitals, schools, stations, airports, ports etc.
  8. Last but not at all least, the whole project must be under the auspices of the European Union which will oversee the implementation of the project by each member state.

It is high times that we understood that children have only us, adults to protect them. If we want them to share a friendly and civilized culture and have them show a responsible social behaviour, driving is part of this responsible social behaviour, so is it that difficult first for us to be socially responsible with them? Don't you think that they need some sound role models? After all, it is not us, their parents to show them responsibility, who will? We must protect their lives.

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