Current Affairs Campaign allows drivers to choose between monetary fine and crash test
Organisers from the Transport Ministry’s Road Safety department (BESIP), in cooperation with Czech and German police, launched a one-day campaign in North Bohemia on Tuesday monitoring drivers on the D8 highway. Police stopped motorists and truckers most often for failure to use their seatbelts. But instead of automatically handing them fines, police offered them a choice: to pay up, or take a spin in a crash simulator instead.
Photo: CTK
Police on the D8 highway in the Ústí region on Tuesday stopped more than
60 truckers and motorists but did not hand out a single ticket. Instead,
they offered drivers an unusual option: pay two thousand crowns (the
maximum fine for failing to use one’s seatbelt for example) or try out
one or two crash tests. One simulated a car’s impact at 30 kilometres an
hour; another, a car flipping onto its roof. Not surprisingly, all those
caught by the police selected the second option rather than to ave to pay.
And, regional road safety coordinator Jan Pechout says many came away wiser
for having taken the test.
“Today, almost one hundred percent of car drivers use their seatbelts but with truckers the situation is only around 80 percent. Many argue that they drive a big vehicle and that nothing will happen to them. But then we remind them what it’s like to crash head on.
Jan Pechout, photo: Alžběta Švarcová
“After taking the impact test on Tuesday many were surprised: afterwards
we overheard them on their CBs. Under normal circumstances they would have
been complaining in colourful language that they’d been stopped by the
cops: but on Tuesday many discussed what it was like to take the impact
test.”
According to Jan Pechout, most motorists and truckers after the test were unable to guess how fast they were going, and a good many were caught off guard by the jolt of impact even though they had been warned in advance. The safety coordinator for BESIP says, in short, the test is very effective in getting a simple message across. The biggest eye-opener for drivers was how crashing at ‘just’ 30 kilometres felt:
Photo: CTK
“For most, the jolt was shocking and was ‘enough’. If you weigh 80
kilos during the test for a tiny moment - half a second - the G- forces go
up rapidly multiplying mass many times over to around 3,000 kilos. If you
crashed at 50 kilometres per hour, the impact would be seven tonnes. So it
gave them a good idea of what happens when you don’t use your seatbelt
and how easily it can prove fatal. Afterwards, most of those we spoke to
thought the test simulated a crash at 80 or 100 kilometres per hour. They
were surprised when we told them it was just 30.”
Tuesday’s campaign, called ‘Pokuta, nebo bum bác’ (A fine or... Bam!) was the second in a row and will return on the D8 again next year. Officials from other regions, witnessing its effectiveness on site, are now considering their own campaigns.
