Students hear about consequences of road accidents

Flemish transport minister Hilde Crevits has approved a €270,000 budget to continue the programme that sees road accident victims giving talks to secondary school students. The two-year project Getuigen Onderweg (Witnesses on the Road) was launched by the Flemish victims’ assistance organisation Rondpunt to allow those who’ve suffered road accidents and their families to talk to young people about the consequences.

On the basis of a study carried out by the government’s policy institute Steunpunt Verkeersveiligheid (Traffic Safety Support), Crevits decided that the project was worth supporting for a further two years. The researchers found that young people were more aware of road safety after listening to the victims. The report also said that girls were more influenced than boys. Some 18,000 Flemish students have already taken part in the project.

Crevits said that social pressure is still not strong enough to reduce dangerous driving in Flanders. “People only realise the importance of road safety if they know someone who has been involved in an accident,” she said in an interview on Radio 1.

Some 197,000 people have been killed or injured on Flemish roads over the past five years, according to Rondpunt. The number decreases every year but remains unacceptably high, the organisation said.