Citation

Isoba M. Proc. Road Saf. Four Continents Conf. 2010; 15: 689-695.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Conference Sponsor)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

The World Health Organization estimates that "every day just over 1000 young people under the age of 25 years are killed in road traffic crashes around the world. It became one of the most important issues in Traffic Safety. The objective of this presentation is to share some experiences and approaches to traffic safety education for children and teenagers through different programs such as "Schools for life", "Workshop: Young people for life", preparation of Specific Teaching Materials and other activities developed by a non governmental, non-profit organization called "Luchemos por la Vida" ("Let's fight for life"), that works to prevent traffic accidents in Argentina, a developing country with 39 million inhabitants, where 22 people are killed each day (more than 8,000 a year)*, another 130,000 are injured each year, and dramatic material losses (estimated in U$S 10 billion a year)** result from traffic collisions. In this country, 2.269 children and teenagers between 13 to 25 years old died last year in traffic. Since what we know about traffic safety education, scope and limits, considering that the main objective of traffic safety education must be to make students aware of the fact that they are an active and responsible part of the traffic system, and taking into account that young people are influenced by factors such as emotional instability, rebelliousness, influentiability and omnipotence that condition their attitudes and behaviors; we want to discuss an important topic: what´s the best moment to start with traffic safety education and the most effective tools to achieve safe young drivers.