Page 5 - TSFG | Let's Talk #3

The Child Pedestrian | 6

and Blind Spots Around Trucks

Due to the nature of the routes and our operations in some of

the most rural areas in South Africa, Tanker Services embarked

on an initiative to educate the youth about road safety.

Pedestrian deaths among young learners are heart-breaking for every parent and

teacher and any initiative to make our learners safe should be well supported.

Thankfully, this initiative received a massive response from all the children and

adults that attended the information sessions.

During the past few years many schools, teachers and young learners have

benefited from the sterling work conducted by the Imperial Scholar Patrol initiative

and the pedestrian safety information provided to our young learners by trainers

from Active Education and the Imperial Road Safety Mascot, Bongie.

In aid of proper road safety education (we often utilise one of

our trucks as a prop). Teachers are invited to climb behind

the steering wheel with access to all the mirrors, we gather

some of the learners and position them all around the truck

and mark those specific areas where the learners would be

out of the line of sight from the truck driver or the teacher in

this case. We then ask the teacher to describe what they can

see.

This clearly illustrates to all that there are a rather significant

amount of blind spots around trucks, especially for young

learners. Up to 40 young children can be placed in these

blind spots!