On April 04, 2014 a joint road safety initiative of the Peshtera "Road Safety Advocates" team and "Open Youth" will be carried out. 

The initiative will take place on “Mihail Takev” str. from 10:30 to 14:00, in front of „HEAT“ complex and will involve:

• alco- and drugvision goggles, simulating vision under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and what is the effect on human capabilities;

• driving simulator, recreating risky driving situations;

• specially designed weight calculator, showing everyone how heavy his/her body is in a collision with a given speed (50, 90 or 130 km/h);

• puzzle showing the participant the inability of a person to do two different activities at the same concentration.

The team consists of three students from the 7th grade of the elementary school “St. Patriarch Evtimii” and is supervised by their teacher Yordanka Gancheva. The youngsters audited the junction of “Mihail Takev” and “Vladimir Rilski” str. in the city. For a little over an hour they have observed and marked down violations by both pedestrians and drivers. Altogether 35 motorized vehicles were observed and 58 violations were registered. The most common problem is the distance, almost 50% of the drivers are not maintaining a safe distance. 20% are changing lanes or turning without signaling first. Unauthorized parking is the second major violation observed - 31% of the drivers. 17% are driving without wearing a seatbelt. Speeding is a violation committed by 14% of the drivers doing through this junction. The team of auditors reached the conclusion that lack of marked and signaled pedestrian crossings at the spot and the poor visibility is obstructing the pedestrians to cross safely. Their suggestion for solving this issue is the creation of crosswalks that will significantly reduce the chance for accident to happen.

The project "Road Safety Advocates" is co-financed under the "Youth in Action" program of the European Union, action 1.3 by NC "EYPI". It is aimed at educating young people not only to detect problems but also to look for solutions.