Egor Beroev

popular Russian cinema and theatre actor

Stop at red light, go at green light. Cross the road at crosswalk. Don’t run across the carriageway. To cross the road safely look to the left first, reaching the middle of the road look to the right.

The rules are simple, one would think, and every schoolboy knows them. Then why are there so many victims among pedestrians? I ask myself this question many times for as an experienced driver and as a father I’m not indifferent to road safety problem in our country. 

I see very often that it’s a pedestrian’s fault in a road accident. Hurrying up he runs across the road at red light. He is lazy to walk about 10-20 meters and get to zebra crossing so he crosses the road in a really dangerous place. Instead of getting down to a safe underground passage he runs headlong across multilane traffic flow.

As a result now we, responsible citizens and the Road Traffic Safety Department, face the problem of teaching pedestrians to road traffic rules anew but in a different way. It’s not enough to repeat the rules to them once again. Pedestrians know the rules well but we need to train them how to use this knowledge.

We are not the only people in the world who seriously worry about road safety. The magnitude of the problem is so great that the international community has recognized the road traffic injuries as the major global crisis. On 11 May, 2011 the World Health Organization declared the official launch of the Decade of Action for Road Safety. And within the framework of the Decade the leaders of the country and main stakeholders will take part in the International Congress on road safety in St. Petersburg.

It’s essential to provide such a high-level discussion of the problems. We highlight the burning issues and at last people begin to realize their gravity. This is the best way to achieve positive changes but if the problem is cushioned or somebody tries to solve it at a local level nothing will get under way. The Congress will attract strong attention of all Russian mass media and in turn they will rouse the public.

It is very important to lay emphasis on pedestrian safety problem among numerous topics on the agenda of the Congress. And as I have already mentioned the ways of educating people should be renewed substantially. Social campaigns are one of the most effective means. A new social campaign called “Pedestrians” has been worked out together by the Road Traffic Safety Department, the Russian Association of Motor Insurers and the “Road Safety Russia” non-governmental organization.

It will be presented at the Congress including the first performance of the “Always use a pedestrian crossing!” video clip – the key element of the event. Then the video will be released on the central TV channels. I’m sure it will be highly effective due to the scale of the audience coverage. Everybody will be affected. I hope every pedestrian will see the clip and get the message that there is nothing shameful in observing road traffic rules. On the contrary, it is a feature of a mature and responsible person who cares for his future, the future of his children and the future of his country.