Kiddie cars to help children learn road safety

It was billed as a road safety course, but there was very little lane discipline in evidence when a score of toddlers got behind the wheel on Monday.

Children get the feel of the road at Al Nabooda Automobiles in an Audi initiative to teach them safe driving. Ravindranath K / The National

DUBAI // It was billed as a road safety course but there was very little lane discipline when a score of tiny drivers got behind the wheel.

Only minutes after 17 children started to drive their electric cars around a course on Monday, there was a four-vehicle pile-up and complaints of not respecting the one-way system.

“It reminds me of the roads in Dubai a bit,” said the parent of a four-year-old taking part in the event, who declined to be identified.

The scene was part of an educational programme put together by car maker Audi, which will be rolled out to pre-schools and nurseries in the coming months.

It aims to teach children, through magic tricks and what is effectively a game of dodgem cars, the basic rules of the road.

“We thought it was never too early to start talking about road safety,” said Inken Wessels, marketing manager of Audi.

“We wanted to set up a programme that gives children a basic understanding of not only the rules of the road and basic signs, but also things like why to wear a seat belt, how to cross the road, and how to behave on a school bus.

“After the educational part, they get their little driver licence and they’re allowed to hit the road, or at least the track we set up with cones.”

Audi hired a local events firm, with a magician, to make the presentation and supervise the children as they drive. About 20 electric push cars – replicas of the R8 Spyder – were flown in from Germany.

Although the cars can travel only at 3kph – a fraction of the 301kph of the grown-up model – they were an immediate hit with the children.

“I’m just waiting for her to ask for one,” said Christiane Samaha, from Lebanon, whose five-year-old daughter Gaia was driving at the front of the kiddie convoy.

Ms Samaha attended the first event at the Audi showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road on Monday after hearing about it on the radio.

“I thought it was a good idea to teach kids about seat belts and road safety,” she said.

The event will make a tour of pre-schools and kindergartens from the end of October to the end of the year.

Ms Wessels said Audi was in talks with several education bodies over the programme and there were plans to accommodate at least one event a week.

There are no laws to make mandatory child seats and back seat belts, two issues which road safety experts have campaigned against.

“There’s a need to speak about the necessity of wearing seat belts,” said Ms Wessels. “If you a look around, you’ll see a lot of families where the kids are roaming freely in the cars.

“Sometimes it’s because the kids themselves undo the seat belts. Once they realise why it’s important, through an event like this, it might be easier for parents to convince them to keep the belts fastened.”

Mazen Al Nashar, Audi national sales manager, hoped the message would be passed to parents who are sometimes unaware of the dangers.

“Children can play a major role in the car when they say, ‘Daddy, wear your seat belt’, or ‘Daddy, there’s a red light’,” Mr Al Nashar said.

“We thought it would be good to start with the kids, so they grow up with these morals.”