The Federal Statistical Office recorded 28 674 injured children on Germany’s roads during the past year, 71 of which were fatal. Whether you are traveling by car, by bike or on foot, road safety is always an important issue. “If you go to school, you have to deal with traffic,” says Jorgen Lecher, member of the board of directors for traffic, environment and technology at the ADAC Hessen-Thüringen, the first-graders at the ADAC.
Increase visibility
Here, the 122 students each receive a child-friendly safety jacket with hood and the silhouettes of traffic detectives Felix and Frieda, which increases the visibility of the children in traffic through reflectors and the signal color neon yellow to 140 meters instead of the original 25 to 40 meters. Thus, the drivers can adjust their pace and respond in dangerous situations earlier. Since the beginning of the action five years ago, about 4.5 million safety vests were distributed in Germany to first-graders and preschoolers; in Hessen alone, this year 58,000 are at more than 1,100 schools. “Every child who is killed in traffic is one thing too much,” says Hessian Minister of Education Alexander Lora. The small ones are disadvantaged in the road traffic in many ways, for example due to their small body size and their short legs. But dark clothing also makes children often overlooked. Particularly in the dark season’s autumn and winter, eye-catching clothing is therefore essential, says Lecher. A photo is designed to illustrate the problem to the primary schoolchildren: Four of the five illustrated children wear safety vests and are very good to look at, while the fifth is barely visible. Rose-Lore Schulz, the Deputy for the Deputy for Mayor Sven Gerick, also warned the children of inattention regarding the dangers of road traffic: “You only have to think of one thing: that you will come home safely.”
Get to other schools
Before the children move around the row to pick up their reflective vests, they promise to wear them on a regular basis. In the coming years, more schools will be reached with the action of the ADAC Foundation “Geber Engel”, for example by means of reporting by a private television station.