Kids need to be trained in observing traffic safety to improve driving conditions

It was Sunday morning on a bright sunny day when winters were just setting in and time for family outing. All of us were ready when my son ran out with the car keys and opened it to make himself comfortable at the back seat, tying the seat belt.

When my wife and I seated inside he began his instructions like a buddy. “Hey Mom, fasten your seat belt, like I’ve done! It’s going to keep all of us safe on the roads! Right?

Right! Thank you, but who has told you all these? She asked with a smile. “Of course Mom you and dad have taught me all this. You know I’m the champion of my class on these matters. Remember I got the first prize in the quiz on Traffic rules in India and meanings of Road signals in India!” he said. “I knew all questions on safety devises like helmets, car seat for children, seat belts, signals, crossing roads and all that they had ask”, he continued with a sense of pride in his voice.

My wife and I equally share his sense of pride in this matter. I feel confident that when he’s ready to drive on the Indian roads he will drive responsibly.

Even at this age of 10 he understands traffic rules, traffic signs and notices deviations on the road, which even the copse, can sometime miss noticing.

Seeing the deterioration in the driving standards today, I always felt it important to train my son from the very beginning the importance of road safety. Today he understands how important it is to drive according to traffic rules, following traffic signs on Indian roads. The Indian driving schools will teach him all that whenever he joins one before he starts driving. But as a pedestrian also he must learn to understand road signals, safety devises and to control his temper on the road.

Watch out dad! Exclaimed my son sitting at the back seat and peeping out of the window, the traffic sign is red…you can’t go! Stop! “Yes I won’t …I have only started the engine and not moving to break the traffic rule.” I said with an encouraging tone.

I had barely finished completing my sentence when my son screamed, “look mom on your left that guy on the motor bike has jumped the red signal. He was just about to hit the man on a bicycle from the other side! O will he be fined; and look that man on a bike is not wearing his helmet! O he would have been hurt! My son was worried now.

“Dad, why was he not wearing the helmet for his safety”, he asked with a concern. This is the usual keenness with which my son watches the traffic on road. He understands the importance of road safety more than the grown-ups Driving on the Indian roads.