Effectiveness of road safety prevention in schools

The World Health Organization estimates that each year, 1.3 million people are killed and more than 50 million people worldwide are injured in road traffic accidents. According to a study conducted by the Allianz Center for Technology, more young people between the ages of 15 and 29 die in traffic accidents than as a result of illness, drugs, suicide, violence, or war events worldwide. That is about 400,000 per year, globally. Worldwide traffic accident prevention campaigns demonstrate the consequences of traffic accidents in an emotionalizing way in order to encourage drivers to adopt conscious safety behavior via adequate driving behavior. The consequences of traffic accidents are demonstrated by prevention campaigns often in an emotionalizing way to encourage drivers to adopt safety measurements through adequate driving behavior. Prior research suggests that the emotionalizing effect of the appeals must be accompanied by solution- as well as action-oriented and self-confidence-increasing measures, so that the instructive message is reinforced and does not lead to reactance. Thus, a strong need arose in the schools for a targeted training as the follow-up of emotional prevention campaigns. A suitable training for knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer into everyday life was developed by means of the design-based research method. To create the targeted follow-up, various methods from cognitive behavioral therapy and common traffic safety programs were adapted. This publication is dedicated to a first explorative research approach in a non-standardized form of a social training. It approaches the question of negative emotional states immediately after a Crash Kurs NRW stage event, which is a prevention program in Germany that targets upper middle school and high school courses and originates from North Rhine-Westphalia. Changes in social behavior and development of participants' own norms, values, and attitudes were observed and documented and are discussed and presented in this article. The result of the survey confirmed prior research and showed visible effects of reactance after the Crash Curs NRW campaign. It was found that a structured follow-up training is suitable to gain reactive behavior from the stage event. Knowledge deficits about the cause and outcome of accidents were successfully addressed in the follow-up. This may have influence the reactance behavior and could be a key factor for successful prevention campaigns. Further publications will observe the connection between knowledge and reactance in subsequent iterative passes of modified follow-ups for the Crash Course NRW Campaign.

Automated summary

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 million people are killed and over 50 million people are injured in road traffic accidents each year. A study shows that more young people aged 15 to 29 die in traffic accidents than from illness, drugs, suicide, violence, or war events worldwide. Global traffic accident prevention campaigns aim to encourage drivers to adopt safe driving behavior through emotional demonstrations of the consequences of accidents. Research suggests that successful prevention campaigns require emotional appeals accompanied by problem-solving measures and increased self-confidence. Targeted training in schools can be an effective follow-up to emotional prevention campaigns, enhancing knowledge acquisition and application.