In this presentation the experiences and approaches of a non governmental, non-profit organization that works to prevent traffic accidents in a developing country, Argentina are described. Trying to follow model of developed countries, in 1990, Luchemos por la Vida was created as a means to build up a new reality in traffic safety in our country.. Where to start and how to go about this task in a country while the population every day, both suffering and inflicting wrongs, attributing each accident to fortuitous and chance actions, taking each tragedy as a personal misfortune, the result of destiny or fate is questioned. Meanwhile, the public authorities, who were supposponsible for this problem, evaded it out of ignorance or by closing their eyes to reality, in order to avoid assuming responsibilities which they believed would not bring them any short-term political gain. A multiple-approach plan aimed at the individual to generate a social change of attitudes towards traffic accidents and behavior on the streets, and a better awareness about traffic as a system in order to provoke changes in the system of individual beliefs and attitudes was developed. To do this,it to influence public opinion with a view to generating spaces of reflection and self-examination, and of social debate regarding the problem of accidents and its relationship with individual and social behaviors of all citizens, in general, and authorities, in particular. With this in view, we decided to divide work among: mass media, government and traffic safety education. The programs, each different in scope, realization and achievements, have contributed to generating an important change of attitude in the population at large regarding this problem. For example, in a public survey, in 1999, the traffic and accidents problems were included by people among the 10 most important problems to be solved by politicians, who have been forced to include it in their agendas. We observe important improvements in traffic behavior of the community were observed in specific tuch as wearing seat belts in cars and helmets on bicycles and motorcycles, improvement in respecting the priority of pedestrians, etc. Even though we are still far from the ideal or desirable state (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see E217780.
Abstract