The road safety competition revealed gaps in schoolchildren’s knowledge

Already from the first weeks of this year the competition program had to be changed after it was discovered that most teachers who head education departments or road safety clubs in districts far from the capital do not care much about such things. Some are too immersed in their own worries, others are unsure of their future, for still others the school bus breakdown has become an insurmountable problem, while still others have generally given up on everything. Due to a dozen of these and other similar problems, this time in the competition “There are no small things on the road”, the qualifying rounds were abandoned, and everyone who thought that it made sense to test their strength in competitions for future drivers was invited to the ARV-Auto driving school racetrack, located in the city of Rokai near Kaunas.

Here each team delegated one of its members to different events. Some solved KET tests specially prepared for the competition, others received extremely important knowledge from residents working at the emergency medical station of the city of Kaunas: how to perform cardiac massage, how to use a defibrillator, how to stop arterial bleeding, etc. The third participated in an impromptu technical inspection and sought answers to the question “can it be dangerous to travel in a new car?”. Another group had the opportunity to compete more precisely on the “ARV-Auto” racetrack. In the end, all team members scratched their heads about how to fill out the traffic accident declaration correctly, so that later there was no room for different interpretations and costly disputes.

The results of all events can only be called “good” after intense heat

because there was not a single competitor who did not make mistakes, and some gaps in knowledge turned out to be really serious. According to paramedic Justina Statulevičiūtė, for example, in Lithuania every year around 3,000 people suddenly die just because those nearby are confused and do not start to help. Since in this competition, before carrying out the official task, all students had the opportunity to learn cardiac massage with special dummies brought by doctors, how much and how to press the chest, everyone remained more or less involved. But there were much more problems in stopping the bleeding using a tourniquet.

Searching for defects in the specially “damaged” new Seat Ibiza sedan, not even half of the competitors noticed that two wheels are not tightened, and the ABS and ESP indicators on the dashboard shine like Christmas wreaths. No future pilot paid attention to the driver’s seat belt attached to the pillar, which was therefore not used for its intended purpose.

“The fact is that even in those schools and gymnasiums where children are invited to road safety clubs, it is often difficult to ensure quality lessons due to the lack of methodological tools. However, many educational institutions do not have even the minimum tools that would help make road safety lessons useful and interesting. Knowing all this, it is a little sad that even the things put on the plate – created original tasks, a fun entertainment part of competitions, coordinated meetings with the most charismatic personalities of motor sports (this time Ignas Gelžinis, who was recognized by the FIA as the best young European driver, explained why even theoretically it is impossible to drive a production car in the same way as one specially prepared for racing) – the school ignores them”, admitted the teacher-expert of the “ARV-Auto” club Lina Šembergė.

After summing up the results of all events, the Kaunas district was recognized as the winner of the “Little things don’t get in the way” competition. The team of Domeikava gymnasium “TZARAI”, students of the gymnasium of Kaunas president Valdas Adamkaus called “Guolios” came second. Third – Landing team “Rasiukų” of the VšĮ Raseinių School of Technology and Economics.