It was good to note recently that police are still visiting primary schools (see Tuesday newspaper) to help students prepare for their annual traffic examination. They did so as part of ongoing road safety education efforts.
How many lives these lessons and concluding test in what is now known as Group 7 saved over the years is impossible to say, but there may have been many. Familiarising kids with traffic basics and -rules including crossing the street in a responsible manner is certainly advisable nowadays, seeing the current number of motor vehicles and the speed at which they often travel.
Some might say the effect is not always evident, considering the behaviour of many drivers and particularly youngsters on scooters. However, one can also wonder how much worse things could have been without the programme.
In Curaçao they even built a mini-traffic park with paved streets, side-walks, road signs and -markings etcetera. Using bikes and pedal cars, course participants were taken there to practice what they had learned in the classroom.
A similar facility for St. Maarten would be no luxury, looking at the growing number of cars on the country’s relatively small and narrow roads. The experiences offered may help prevent accidents and tragedies at a later age.
There will always be other priorities, but traffic and related problems have become an increasingly important issue on the island. Teach them while they’re young.
