Thank you for stopping for me!

"Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. "
Abbé Dimnet, Art of Thinking, 1928

Monday, August 29th is THE big day for all Ticinese children: School starts!

Thousands of children will be walking from their home to school. Every year the Swiss Touring Club launches an advertising campaign to raise drivers' awareness of the fact that many young children are absorbing the pedestrian jungle. This year the City Police of Lugano have decided to join the prevention campaign called "Thank you for stopping for me," to secure the way to school.

Next week police officers will distribute practical parking time discs with the slogan of this campaign to drivers near the elementary schools. In addition, the first day of school first grade pupils will receive a little red baseball hat. The color helps to increase the safety of students and improves the visibility while recalling the driver to pay close attention to the children wearing them.

During the second week of September the Lugano City Police will launch a second campaign to further improve safety at pedestrian crossings.

It is important that motorists come to a complete stop before the children start crossing the street. A child in fact, may have trouble understanding if the driver will stop or not and is hardly able to estimate the speed of the vehicle. It takes a child up to 10 seconds longer than an adult to decide whether to cross the street. The reaction time is longer.  Add two additional factors that should not be forgotten: the children's reduced and narrower field of view due to their stature and the fact that, for this reason, the driver may not see them right away.

To ensure an even safer school start, before the opening of schools for the entire month of September police will be checking speed (radar) and circulation (driver behavior) in the vicinity of school locations and on major routes to and from school.

Therefore - driver or a pedestrian - be prepared and ready to lend a helping hand (sometimes literally) to all those little ones who are standing by the zebra crossing wondering when to move. A big smile will be the best thank you for stopping for them.