DUBAI // More than 17,000 school pupils have taken part in a driving programme since the start of the school year to educate them on road safety.
The Traffic Park programme established mini road networks in seven schools at a cost of Dh550,000, with plans to roll out in more schools.
Captain Souha Abdel Qader, head of the awareness unit at the General Department of Traffic, said Dubai Police wanted to implement a permanent programme that would make road safety education entertaining.
“We wanted to do something that is fun but also educational and these parks are done in a way to look like real roads only miniature size,” she said. “Children can get into mini vehicles and learn road signs and rules.
“Lectures and powerpoint presentations can bore children. You find most of them fall asleep,” Capt Abdel Qader said.
“The Traffic Park programme used to be mobile but now we have made it permanent. It is a simple method but with a huge impact.”
Capt Abdel Qader said Dubai Police, in collaborating with Total Marketing Middle East, wanted parents to learn road safety from the programme, too.
“We need to integrate traffic awareness in school curricula because most accidents are a result of lack of awareness,” she said, adding that there are other programmes that support the Traffic Park,programme such as the scouts programme.
“Students in the fifth grade are given an opportunity to act as police officers,” she said. “We take a group of five or 10 children to a residential area, where they can dress in police uniforms and act as police officers as motorists drive by.
“They will tell us who is breaking the rules, who is not following the signs or not wearing a seatbelt.”
David Kalife, the managing director of Total Marketing Middle East, said his company has been associated with road safety campaigns in the emirates for four years.
“Our previous campaigns involved setting-up temporary circuits at schools and teaching children in the age group of 5 to 8 years about road traffic rules. However, since the exposure was temporary, the impact was not high,” he said.
“A permanent traffic park at a school ensures that the school can expose the children to traffic rules as and when they need, thereby creating a lasting impression on them.”
dmoukhallati@thenational.ae