LAINATE (MILANO) (ITALPRESS) – Today, at the ACI Vallelunga Medical Guidance Centre in Lainate and the Monza National Circuit – “Together for Road Safety”, the day promoted by ACI and the Ministry of Education and Merit to spread educational and awareness-raising routes in road education. The initiative involved over 650 students, including primary school pupils and secondary school students of the first and second degree, who met the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara and the President of ACI Geronimo LaRussia. During the work, a video message by Kimi Antonelli, leader of the Formula 1 World Championship, was sent to emphasize the importance of respect for the rules, especially when driving a vehicle, and highlight how the support of the Automobile Club of Italy was fundamental in its training course as a driver.
“To talk about road safety to the youngest – said the President of ACI, Geronimo LaRussia – means talking about life, responsibility and future. Our boys can and must be the first ambassadors of a strong and clear message in the affirmation of road safety. A fundamental mission in which the Automobile Club of Italy has always been committed, with conviction and continuity, through training activities, awareness campaigns and initiatives aimed at new generations.” “For us – President ACI concluded – road safety is not only a set of rules to be known, but a culture to be built every day, with concrete examples, direct experiences and clear messages. Helping children understand all this means not only protecting them today, but making them tomorrow users of the road more aware, more prudent and more respectful of their own life and others.”.
“The road education – said Minister Giuseppe Valditara – is, first of all, education to respect: respect for the rules, and first of all respect for the other, the life and safety of each one. This is why we wanted to strengthen its role within the new guidelines for civic education, making it a real learning goal. No longer only theoretical lessons, carried out exclusively “from the chair”, but participatory courses, in which students are active protagonists and in which even dramatic examples play an important role”. “The testimonies heard today – the Minister added – convey a clear message: the school must also educate empathy and responsibility. Knowing the suffering that all our wrong behavior can provoke in others; taking behaviors inspired by prudence and maturity. Never drive without adequate psychophysical conditions: alcohol, drugs, cell use, fatigue are very serious risk factors. Promoting a culture of road safety means putting into the centre the sense of the community: moving from “I” to “we”, understanding that every individual behavior has consequences on the whole community. It is about this awareness that we want to continue investing.”.
During the day, girls and boys were involved in an articulated road education path, built to combine training, direct experience and risk awareness. Lectures on distraction and conscious driving, safe driving demonstrations for cars, motorcycles and scooters, tests dedicated to aquaplaning and disbanding, menacing on the scooter, immersive simulators, ACI Ready2Go and tools for the simulation of pedestrian crossings, along with karting in the square, offered participants concrete and engaging opportunities to mature a more solid awareness of the themes of road safety. In Lainate, stations dedicated to simulators were set up, one of which with an experimental system for pedestrian crossings. Instruments that have allowed students to confront themselves directly with realistic situations and correct behaviors to take on the road.
For primary school pupils, the program at the Monza National Circuit has combined ludic-formative activities and moments of discovery: from Karting in the square to the ACI format “Giovani Campioni della sicurezza Stradale”, inserted in the ACI training offer on the Edustrada del MIM portal, until the visit to the stand of the Carabinieri Academy dedicated to Biodiversity. For the pupils of the last two years of the primary it was also planned to try the immersive simulator, as well as to participate in the tour of the Autodrome. An itinerary designed to convey, as a child, the value of the rules, the attention and respect of other road users. The first-degree secondary school students took part, at the Lainate Medical Guidance Centre, in the ACI format “Micromobility”, also present in the ACI training offer on the MIM Edustrada portal. The program has been enriched by the participation of the Pullman Azzurro, a demonstration of aquaplaning and other activities on track illustrated by an instructor of Safe Guide, thus offering a particularly effective opportunity to raise awareness of the risks of circulation and the importance of responsible behaviour.
For secondary school students of the second degree between 14 and 16 years different activities have been organized: a part of the boys has witnessed a safe driving demonstration with cars and motorcycles/scooters, while the others have participated, divided into subgroups, to the mini-path. The program also included a demonstration dedicated to the safe driving of the scooter, during which the instructors illustrated the correct behaviors to be adopted by this vehicle. The students then reached Monza for the guided tour of the National Autodrome. An articulated and highly educational path, calibrated by means of transport today particularly present in the daily mobility of young people. The students of the 17-18 year olds, finally, participated alternately in a lesson on distraction and conscious driving, as part of the ACI road education format present on Edustrada, and a demonstration of disbanded cars. In this last activity, some boys, climbed on board as passengers of a vehicle led by a safe driving instructor, experienced, under controlled conditions, the effects of the sudden loss of grip of the rear wheels. Also for them is followed the transfer to Monza for the guided tour of the National Autodrome: a particularly significant experience, able to translate training into a direct perception of risk and to strengthen awareness of the dangers related to distracted or incorrect driving.
– ACI press office photos –
(ITALPRESS).
