Recently, 450 young traffic policemen came from all corners of Ukraine (with some guests from Belarus and Russia present), to take part in the 34th All-Ukrainian Convention of young traffic policemen and the 14th Contest of young traffic policemen teams. The Traffic Police Department of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine helped out with the organization of this regularly-held gathering.
During the week-long convention its participants competed for prizes in the following categories: Knowledge of Traffic Rules, Best Young Traffic Controller, Bicycle Relay Race, Best Propaganda Team and Best Newsletter. As the chief of the Traffic Police Department’s Preventive Work Service Yevhen Kravets noted, juries consisted of experts working with the Department’s Center for Road Safety.
The competition for best photo-video report entitled “With the traffic police’s help, life is safer” was extremely interesting; its participants described their road safety promotion work among peers in their region. The statistics, which made up the bulk of these presentations, indicated the systematic nature of the work conducted by young traffic police auxiliaries. The team Avtohrai from Chernivtsi oblast visited schools 12 times during the last academic year, and held six training games at preschools. A team from Kyiv oblast showed 12 propaganda films, shot near road crossings during rush hour. The group from Berdiansk (team Extreme), working under the motto “Traffic Police and Extreme Team Will Prevent Accidents,” turned their attention to the safety of their city’s World War II veterans during holidays dedicated to the victory in the war and Ukraine’s liberation from Nazi invaders. The competitions resulted in a victory for the team Signal from Vinnytsia, which was declared most proficient and having the best knowledge of traffic rules; its motto is “The Young Generation for Safety.” The second and third places were awarded to teams from the Crimea and Zaporizhia respectively.
“This show was of high quality, and we took note of the better preparedness of finalist teams for the main event at Artek,” said the chief of the Traffic Police Department of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Valerii Lozovy. “It was difficult to determine the winner, we liked them all — colorful and totally authentic teams from Donetsk and Chernivtsi regions, the energetic team Vitamins from Kyiv oblast, the charismatic Kirovohrad team Victims of An Experiment. As always, the Zaporizhian young traffic policemen team’s performance was brilliant, but it was the showmen from Volhynia that were the genuine revelation for us all. The power of their artistic performance was such that when the competition ended, fans chanted “we know the traffic rules, we respect the traffic rules!”
As a result of the fierce competition, the champion’s title was won by the Lviv team Taxi. Each team’s performance was so spectacular that the score difference was measured in deciles of a point.
The decision to establish the Artek Children’s Center of Road Safety may be considered yet another victory of this convention.
“Under the Traffic Police Department’s Chief Valerii Lozovy’s auspices, we have already held a meeting with the Artek management and began to implement this idea,” the Traffic Police Department’s Deputy Chief Anatolii Pavlovsky told the audience during the closing ceremony. He also warmly thanked people from the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine, represented by the Bureau’s President Volodymyr Romanyshyn, and the Foxtrot Group, represented by its Board of Founders Chairman Gennadii Vykhodtsev, for their assistance in organizing the competitions and their concern about road safety.
