The 4th European Red Cross Road Safety Campaign, co-sponsored by the European Commission, involves the active participation of 19 Red Cross National Societies: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Malta and the United Kingdom.
The campaign was launched during the first UN Global Road Safety Week with more than 300 public events across Europe. Until June 2008, National Red Cross Societies will deliver programmes to increase awareness, knowledge and respect of road safety rules and behaviours as well as to promote first aid amongst the general public.
The main outcome of the 4th campaign will be the production of a “road safety and first aid resource pack”, a tool which will provide the Red Cross, other road safety agencies and multipliers throughout Europe with tested material for tackling the road safety issues in their country. A draft version is being tested by all participating National Red Cross Societies between October 2007 and February 2008. The final version of the resource pack will be issued in May 2008 and available for free download on the campaign website: www.1-life.info
In 2007, the resource pack has been successfully piloted in numerous schools across Europe, and has already received the official support from the Ministry of Education of Cyprus and Greece. Besides the testing of the resource pack, a large variety of activities and events have taken place. For example, National Red Cross Societies have organised a summer camp with road safety activities for refugee children in Bulgaria, a national first aid youth competition in Austria, a car-free day in Latvia, a bicycle tour in Lithuania, and an awareness march in Slovakia. A wide audience has been reached, with Red Cross staff and volunteers giving road safety and first aid education in kindergartens, schools, nursing homes, shopping centres, theme parks, at international fairs, and in many other public places.