Safe Driving: Choose to Live

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Dátum konania
28/06/2022 - 05/07/2022

Miesta konania
ACIREALE, Italy

Typ projektu:


More info about the project:

“Last year (2017 ed.) 25300 people lost their lives on our roads, and many more were injured with lifelong disabling consequences. Behind these figures are as many stories of pain and suffering. Road safety is certainly a shared competence with the Member States, but I believe that the EU can do more to better protect European citizens…” these are the words of Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport, commenting on the Preliminary Road Safety Statistics Report 2017. The Road Safety Programme, promoted by the European Commission, aims to reduce the number of road fatalities in Europe between 2011 and 2020; our project, in fact, wants to support this priority by carrying out appropriate training and information for us young people aged between 16 and 24: young road users, new drivers or those about to get their licence. Although the number of deaths fell by around 2% between 2016 and 2017 (European report), it is still not enough to reach the objective of the Road Safety Programme, which is why we imagined a youth exchange to help us discuss and compare notes on road safety.

We believe that a strong generational battle is needed to train and inform us young people and our peers on good practices and model behaviours to prevent road accidents and risks to the life and safety of all road users. To undertake a virtuous path that will allow young people aged between 16 and 24 years to understand how to become aware road users, avoid risks related to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, learn to use active and passive safety devices and also learn basic first aid techniques in order to help those in difficulty.

The project “Safe Driving: Choose to live!” aimed therefore, to complement the Road Safety Programme through the promotion of the objectives of Erasmus+ as a stimulus to active European citizenship, civic education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles to protect life in the prevention of risk events and the culture of respect for the rules of civil coexistence and compliance with road safety regulations by young active road users.

From the 2017 statistics, in fact, we see how the Italian figure is in contrast with the European average; if in Europe, in fact, the decrease in road deaths was 2%, in Italy the figure sees an increase of 3% when comparing 2016 and 2017. Similarly to the Italian figure, we see how, for example, other countries have experienced the same problems: Spain (+2%), Romania (+1%), Croatia (+8%), up to important contrasts such as Portugal (+14%), Slovakia (+12).

Our youth exchange, therefore, had as its main objective the desire to reduce the number of risk events linked to poor road use by young people entering the world of driving (those about to obtain a driving licence, new drivers and young people with a licence for less than 3 years). As we believe that any change has to come from the bottom up, we believe that this project can have a positive impact (in terms of reducing the number of risk events) starting from our communities: a local action that aims to become global, thus favouring a “glocal” approach to an issue of such great interest, especially for young people.

In order to achieve the ambitious general objective, we intended to set specific objectives that contributed to its achievement and specifically
– to inform and educate about the current road regulations in Europe and in each of our countries: how best to follow them;
– to educate and make us and our peers aware of the rules and the correct use of active and passive safety
devices (use of helmets, use of seat belts, use of protective clothing, etc.);
– prevent driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and basic first aid elements thanks to the involvement of specialists in the field (SERT, driving school instructor, Italian Red Cross, Traffic Police, etc.);
– disseminate the good practices learned in our communities through workshops, booklets and awarenessraising videos that can help our peers to reflect before getting behind the wheel and during their experience as young drivers.

Participants were from Italy Italy, Croatia Croatia, Spain Spain, Portugal Portugal and Slovakia Slovakia. There were 7 participants from each country.