A. Smithra, a Plus-One student of Venkatalakshmi Matriculation Higher Secondary School, is planning to ask her father to not ride his motorcycle on streets that are marked ‘one-way’. He takes her every day to her tuitions.
“I wanted to tell him. But now I will, for I now understand the dangers of violating rules,” the girl says at the end of the awareness session on traffic rules and handling emergencies the Traffic Wardens conducted for the students on Saturday.
She will urge her father to wear helmet, always walk on the right side of the road, facing the oncoming traffic and abide by the rules.
M.K. Raj Sivaram, a Standard IX student, says that he plans to present a helmet to his father on his birthday. “What better gift could I give him, the family’s breadwinner,” the boy asks. “In his safety and security lies the family’s. I’ll not stop with gifting him a helmet but will also ensure that he wears it while riding his motorcycle.”
The two students are not alone in emphasising the need for traffic rules. They are joined by their school mates in classes nine, 10 and Plus-One, all of who attended the programme.
The students have also learnt what to do in fire accident and other emergencies.
After the training, he knows what to do and not panic, says A. Sankara Raman, student of Standard X.
“I’ll crawl, ask others to follow suit. I’ll also ask people trapped to close their nose with wet handkerchiefs.”
The traffic wardens’ team comprising K.V. Vinayaga Moorthy, A. Madhavan and T. Marimuthu says that there is an urgent need to address the students because Tamil Nadu for the past decade has been topping the Country in the list of states where death on the roads is high.
Last year alone 16,175 persons have lost their lives in accidents, it says and adds that enforcement alone cannot bring about the desired result. Educating the students, who are at an impressionable age, will also bring about a change, for at the awareness camps, they encourage students to impress upon their parents to adhere to traffic rules.
Thus far the team has met more than 40,000 students, it says. And the results are already positive.
Mr. Moorthy says that during the team’s interaction with road users who comply with rules, it has come to light that they have been doing so after their sons or daughters have urged them to do so. And the sons or daughters have undergone the training.
The team says that it plans to meet more students in the coming days.
