Short films highlight children of errant drivers giving lessons on road safety

"Catch them young." That's what Kolkata Traffic Police personnel are doing. In a unique move, through short films, children of errant drivers are seen giving lessons to their fathers on rules and regulations that need to be followed on roads.

As part of the Kolkata Traffic Police's awareness campaign — "Jaago" — on road safety, interested film makers were invited to take part in a short film competition and showcase their works on traffic safety measures and norms.

Besides a few experienced and professional filmmakers, a good number of aspiring directors have also made some short films and submitted their works with the traffic police through the 25 traffic guards.

The basic idea is to create awareness on traffic safety. Sources said that in some of the films, where errant drivers were made to realize the risks of breaking traffic norms by their children, noticeable changes have been observed in those individuals.

In one of the films, an auto-rickshaw driver and his daughter have been featured. At the beginning of the film, the auto-rickshaw driver has been shown breaking traffic rules on and off while plying his vehicle packed with passengers without realising that he was not only risking others' lives but also his own.

It is learnt that in the film, the driver was shown caring little while flouting traffic signals and didn't bother to take only the permissible number of passengers. Similarly, many other auto-rickshaw drivers were doing the same.

The film takes a twist with the errant driver realising his mistake that even his life is in danger and the realization comes when his daughter tells him about the ill effects of flouting traffic rules. He gives a deep sigh and listens intently to the lessons on traffic safety given to him by his daughter and turns into a "traffic norms abiding citizen". The film then goes onto show how, from the very next day, he starts driving his auto-rickshaw following all the traffic rules and doesn't jump signals as well.

In another film, though the storyline is a bit different, an errant bus driver and his son have been featured to highlight how risky it becomes when a bus with 60 to 70 passengers in it race with another on the same route. Here, the boy of the errant bus driver plays a vital role in creating awareness on traffic safety.

Some of the other short films featured stories of a pedestrian and of an on-duty traffic cop.

Experts and senior officers of the Kolkata Traffic Police will be going through the short films and if everything goes according to plan, finally, the best five will be chosen to be telecast in a television reality show to create awareness among the masses about traffic regulations.

It may be mentioned that the city traffic police undertake various training and awareness programmes for drivers. Massive events are also organised to create awareness among children and schools are visited with the same purpose besides involving them in different programmes like traffic safety week.

It is considered that school children can play vital roles in spreading awareness among their parents and coming from them, it would become understandably impossible to flout traffic norms for the grown-ups.