Road Safety Russia is certain that concerted action can save millions of lives.

05 April 2013

Today, on the second day of the Global Meeting of NGOs for Road Safety, Anastasia Bakhmutova and Alexander Revskiy from Road Safety Russia presented a paper on “The Russian Experience of Road Safety Public Awareness Campaigns”. They spoke about the nature of their organisation, the themes which it has been addressing recently, and its plans for the immediate future.

 

The Road Safety Russia representatives informed their audience that in the last few years their organisation had campaigned against drunk driving (“Had a Drink? Don’t Start Up!”) and speeding (“No Rush”), advocated the rights of passengers (“Passenger Right”), and promoted pedestrian safety (“Walk of Life”) and child passenger safety (“Car Seats for Children”).

Anastasia and Alexander spoke in more detail about the nationwide project Car Seats for Children, which aims to improve the safety of child passengers. The project is being implemented jointly by the State Automobile Inspectorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Association of Motor Insurers and Road Safety Russia. 

 

The Road Safety Russia representatives asked the rhetorical question, “Why is it that so many children die?” They went on to respond, “The main difficulty is the lack of a road safety culture among adults and children. To address this problem we must pay attention to the younger generation, starting with nurseries and schools; we should teach and explain road traffic rules on the basis of real-life situations. This will foster a road safety culture from early childhood. It is precisely for this reason that the Car Seats for Children campaign was aimed at both children and parents.”

Having outlined the campaign elements and the initiatives put forward as a result of the campaign, the Road Safety Russia representatives turned to its results: in 2012, deaths among child passengers fell by 5% compared to the previous year.

 

Road Safety Russia does not intend to rest on its laurels. It will continue the theme of child passenger safety as part of its new campaign “Buckle Up!” which aims to tackle the problem of non-use of seat belts. The representatives said, “The main concept behind our upcoming project is “start with yourself”. We decided to start with individual examples of law-abiding behaviour: in the first instance, we asked the Russian prime minister to support our campaign and show everyone that it is always essential to buckle up.”

In conclusion, the campaigners stressed, “We are willing to start with ourselves. We welcome all forms of cooperation. We are certain that together we can save millions of lives.” 

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