Truck on a school visit

In connection with a so-called cycling week, when most pupils at Ejer Bavnehøj School near Skanderborg cycled to and from school, Dantra provided a truck and master driver Jørgen Pedersen to raise the pupils' awareness of blind spots and other aspects of road safety.

Jørgen Pedersen showed the truck inside and out, demonstrated road safety risks and answered the children's questions. - From my point of view, the most important thing is that the children themselves had the opportunity to experience and understand the blind spots from the driver's seat of a truck. Educating them on how to deal appropriately with heavy vehicles is an essential element of road safety education," he says.
The much-publicized right-turn accidents happen when trucks turn right while cyclists are going straight ahead. During the visit to the Ejner Bavnehøj School, Jørgen Pedersen explained the situation and demonstrated some of the possible mitigation actions that cyclists can take. The children experienced the complexity of a cornering maneuver and were given tools to avoid dangerous situations.

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It is a practical extension of classroom teaching, introducing pupils to road safety behavior. From a driver's point of view, I could explain, for example, why trucks are necessary and why it makes sense to wear a bicycle helmet," says Jørgen Pedersen, who gave the children in the schoolyard the opportunity to get up close to the truck in a safe environment.

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Behind the wheel as 'drivers', individual pupils experienced how their classmates outside disappeared in the mirrors when placed in the blind spots, just as pedestrians and cyclists can do in traffic. It was a real eye-opener, which hopefully reminds them to pay extra attention when they meet a truck," he continues.
According to the master driver, the children responded very well to the initiative, with lots of questions and positive feedback. "Why are there so many mirrors when you can just look out the windows?" one student wanted to know, while a friend exclaimed: "It's usually so boring to read about traffic, but this... this is cool."

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