© Photo: If.
Primary schools will start next week starting on Tuesday and Wednesday 12.8. is the most common school start date in Finland. There will be a hustle and bustle on the school road, as there are more than half a million primary school students in Finland, according to the Finnish Automobile Association’s press release.
– About 60,000 first-graders appear in the street scene, many of whom are independently in traffic for the first time. The ability of young children to observe and assess traffic situations is limited and their attention may be drawn to completely different things, such as the friends on the other side of the road, Teppo Vesalainen notes in the release.
– The responsibility for the safe school path for children lies with the adults. Motorists need to adjust their driving speed so that they can stop the car in an unexpected situation. All concentration must be in traffic. Especially in the vicinity of schools, not even the radio channel should be changed, let alone illegal cell phone rapping.
Especially in the first days, parents want to send their children to school.
If a school trip does not require the use of a car, it would be good to accompany the child on foot. This would avoid unnecessary escort traffic in the vicinity of crowded schools and at the same time allow for a safe school route.
– The escort traffic in the yard of some schools is really lively and even confusing. When transporting the child, the car should be stopped so that it does not have to be reversed when leaving, as the child is easily hidden behind, Vesalainen points out.
Children take a model from adults and attitudes are learned from an early age. It is therefore the responsibility of all adults to follow the rules in traffic and set a good example.
– If an adult does not wait for the lights to turn green to cross the street, then why would a child moderate.