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May is Family Month, and it is the best time of the year to make some good memories. But, many people don’t realize that the number of traffic accidents involving children is also the highest in this month. For the past five years, there have been 61,000 traffic accidents involving children, most of them occurring in May when outdoor activities peak. It takes only a blink of an eye for an accident to happen, and preventing it is the first step in making our society a healthier place.
Hyundai Motors has been working hard to make our society a safer place by preventing traffic accidents involving children by providing traffic safety education. Especially, Hyundai Motors has been engaged in various traffic safety education programs utilizing a popular cartoon character called Robocar Poli since 2013. One of the best-known examples of these programs is the Traffic Safety Experience Center on Wheels. Robocar Poli is working vigorously to ensure the safety of all children in the country in 2017 as well.
Hyundai Motors’ Traffic Safety Experience Center on Wheels Makes a Return with Even Better Programs
On May 18, the children of Gumi waited for Hyundai Motors’ Traffic Safety Experience Center on Wheels to arrive with excitement in their faces. This year’s Traffic Safety Experience Center on Wheels will tour five regions in the country, starting from Gumi and visiting Gangwon, Jeonbuk, Gyeonggi, and Seoul. Around 5 thousand children and parents joined our program last year, and this year’s program promises even more improved programs. Now, let’s take a look at the journey of Hyundai Motors and Robocar Poli and the grand opening that took place in Gumi.
With exciting music signaling the beginning of the program, the children began to enter the venue. First, the sign boards featuring Poli, Roy, and other characters in Robocar Poli drew the attention of the children. And, some of the children greeted the instructors by extending their hands in a pleasant manner. The Hyundai Motors Traffic Safety Experience Center on Wheels of this year was composed of different activities and education related to walking safety, bicycle safety, safety when boarding and getting off school buses and keeping away from blind spots, fire evacuation, and CPR trainings, and more. Especially, this year’s program included new features such as the descending device experience, VR transportation safety experience, and screen OX quiz, making the program livelier and more diversified. Now, shall we take a tour around the experience event?
Keeping Safe Wherever You Are with the Bicycle Safety Rules and Three Principles of Crossing a Street
“Why do we have to wear our helmets when we ride a bicycle? Take a good look at the egg dropping experiment!”
From the first corner of Traffic Safety Experience Center on Wheels, the kind voice of the instructors could be heard. This is the Bicycle Riding Safety Experience Zone. Here, the children could learn why it is so important to wear the helmets by watching the egg-dropping test and how to wear the safety equipment. In addition, they learned how to distinguish between dangerous and safe places when riding a bicycle and how to ride a bicycle safely.
“Stop! Look! Cross!”
Here in the Street-Walking Experience Zone, the children are keenly learning about the three principles of crossing streets in order to cross streets safely. They learn the safety rules for crossroads and experience how to cross a crosswalk safely in a simulated, miniature street featuring cars and signal lamps. The children learned about the importance of safety through experiments and lectures and then tried out the theories they learned in a hands-on experience. Learning by experience, surely, they would not forget the street safety rules.
Stay Happy on the School Bus through the Getting-on/off Experience with School B
After finishing their bicycle and cross-walk lessons, the children get on ‘School B’ that is waiting for them in the School Bus Safety Experience Zone. After getting on the cute School B, a mock school bus, the children learn about how to stay safe in a school bus by ‘seating upright,’ ‘wearing safety belts,’ and ‘keeping hands and arms inside the windows.’ The children seemed more focused than ever on their instructors. Maybe it’s because School B looked exactly the same as their real school buses.
Safety instructions were being given outside of School B as well because children, whose concentration is not as good as that of adults, tend to ignore the risks in blind spots or while they get on/off the vehicle. This sometimes causes tragic accidents involving their school buses. To prevent such accidents, it is important to teach them the safety rules and the concept of blind spots associated with vehicles, as well. “What do you have to do when you get off the school bus?” “We must keep an eye on motorcycles!” Songi Hwang (7) answers the question from her instructor with confidence, and it is a good reminder of why the safety education is so important.
Make your field education experience deeper with VRs, feeling more real than reality itself
“Do you see the signal lamps?” “Yes! It’s so amazing!”
The VR Traffic Safety Experience Zone was full of laughter and the exclamations of the children. Hyundai Motors has been working on new ways to deliver traffic safety experiences to children and has now come up with the VR zone starting from this year. The idea was that the VR space, where there is no limit in time and space, may provide a wider range of traffic safety education. With the guidance from the teachers, the children who were wearing the VR were amazed when they saw the complex streets and crosswalks. And, with the help of the VR system, they could learn about the risks on the street and safety rules in depth.
Getting Ready for an Emergency or a Disaster with Fire Evacuation and CPR Drills
The next section waiting for the children was the ‘Descending Device Experience Zone’ which simulated a high-rise building. And, this attracted the most attention from the students among all the sections in this year’s Hyundai Motors Traffic Safety Experience Center on Wheels. In order to properly learn about traffic safety it is important for children to experience the types of accidents that may occur in their daily life and how to respond to them. In the Descending Device Experience Zone, a 119 rescue team member taught the children how to evacuate from a high-rise building in the case of a fire. “Put on a harness and pull the fastener. Do you think you can go down now?” The children were scared at first. But, the kind voice of the 119 rescue team member made them feel calm, and they showed great courage in coming down from the rather high experience zone set safely.
The next section was the ‘Simulated Tunnel on Fire’ and the ‘CPR Experience Zone.’ The simulated tunnel on fire simulated a da
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