As a result of road safety trainings that have been held since the beginning of September 2016 at schools # 31, 32, 126, 164 and 258, Azerbaijan National Automobile Club (AMAK) has started the competition among schools. As part of this activity, in January and February of 2017, AMAK, together with the Baku State Traffic Police, the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Azerbaijan, and Farida Suleymanova, Head of Division for Creativity of the Center for Extracurricular Activities   #46, held competitions on 5 different nominations. The first nomination of competition was called “Drawing on Road Safety”. During the competition, the participants received the following 5 different and important road safety messages:

1.      Every child should go to school in safe and speed-controlled roads.

2.      Every child must use seat belts while traveling in the car. Seat belt may save your life!

3.      Parents should use child car seats for the safety of their baby.

4.      The most common worldwide traffic accidents happened because of the drunk drivers. Drunk drivers must be punished.

5.      Using a helmet while driving a bicycle reduces the risk of the brain damage that may happen during the accident.

Children have chosen one of those topics and reflected it in their paintings.

The second contest called “Quiz on Road Safety”. During this competition, the students were asked various questions in the form of teams, providing feedback on traffic rules and various traffic situations in order to check their knowledge and skills gained during the Road Safety Trainings. Finally, AMAK, Baku Traffic Police, British Embassy in Azerbaijan and Farida Suleymanova, Head of Division for Creativity of the Center for Extracurricular Activities # 46 asked open questions in order to determine their overall road safety knowledge.

The 3rd nomination was called “Video about road safety”. As in each competition, a group of students from ADA University and Qafqaz University, who took part in the Road Safety training as trainers, guided and helped children. Children shared their knowledge they had learned during their education with drivers and pedestrians around their schools, who violated traffic rules, in order to raise their awareness about road safety.

The next nomination called “Scene about Road Safety”, was held with the purpose of reminding road safety rules to the audience. As a result, children showed scenes on any road safety topic they liked, where they mentioned road safety rules.

The purpose of the 5th nomination was to provide recommendations under the subject “What would I do, if I was a civil servant?”. The teams provided their recommendations on what they would like to do in order to eliminate the risks they face every day as children of the country.

Finally, the jury members — AMAK management, Baku State Traffic Police, Embassy of Britain in Azerbaijan and Farida Suleymanova, who has a vast experience in road safety — took part in the selection process. The winners will be announced at the closing event organized with the participation of parents.

We express our deep gratitude to the faculty and children of every school participating in the project for their support they have demonstrated in the Road Safety Training carried out by AMAK.

It should be noted that AMAK was founded in 1999 and became a FIA member in 2015. AMAK is an automobile club that provides its members with exclusive bonus and discount programs; it also has such services as road assistance, advisory on technical and legal issues related to automobiles. AMAK is also represents automobilists’ interests, their needs and concerns in government agencies. It helps to develop automobile tourism and club culture in Azerbaijan. Moreover, one of the main goals of AMAK is to deliver trainings for drivers, raise awareness among drivers and pedestrians in order to improve road culture and actively promote road safety through various research projects.

AMAK is also having ongoing projects with international partners such as EASST, FIA, FIA Foundation, as well as the British Embassy in Baku, State Traffic Police Department of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Education, Autostop Media and other local partners.