Road safety – A learning track below your home! –

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A learning path downstairs from your home !

Road safety - A learning path below your home! -

While the Greens strive to restrict the rise of motorized two-wheelers and the government multiplies its weapons of mass repression, others on the ground continue to advance. Example: the CRS / GEMA track sponsored by Christophe Guyot.

While the Greens of the City of Paris strive to "restrict the significant growth of motorized two-wheelers in Ile-de-France (read) and that the government continues to implement its weapons of mass repression, it is gratifying to see that on the ground, real interesting initiatives, with real pieces of human relations in them, continue to hold up against the wind and tides.

This is particularly the case of the CRS / GEMA motorcycle cycle track which circulates throughout France, run by a team of pedagogical cops from the Republican Security Companies (CRS) in partnership with the European Group of Insurance Mutuals (GEMA, which includes in particular the Mutual of Motards). Goal : "make adolescents aware of the risks of two-wheelers through a practical initiation into the risks of driving". The track, which has belonged to the CRS since 1972, has been financed and provided for four years by GEMA.

"Driving a motorized two-wheeler is not innate "recalls Christophe Guyot, world endurance champion, former teacher and sponsor of the operation."Just because you know how to ride a bike doesn’t mean you know how to drive a motorized two-wheeler. Having an accident, just one, proves that you don’t know how to drive"…

Installed last week at the foot of the HLM bars in Ivry, just in front of the (communist) town hall, the track allowed several hundred young people from this southern suburb of Paris to come and discover motorized two-wheelers for free in complete safety, trained by CRS in uniform with whom "yeah, it’s going nickel".

On the program, for an hour: theoretical initiation, practical phase on a "home trainer" to learn how to use the controls and check the safety elements, then access to the track to pilot a scooter or a motorcycle, first on a dual control machine with a CRS as a passenger, and finally all alone.

"Down first, down !"repeats one of the trainer cops to Eddy, 16, who is struggling to leave after a stop at the hitchhike."It’s good the bike, but each time at the stop I stalled, I’m not too used to !", explains Eddy after this first experience.

Most of the teenagers we met in Ivry had never ridden a motorcycle or a scooter. But whether it is Mehdi (15 years old), Arnaud (16 years old) or Koun (16 years old), all would like "pass the license and have a motorbike"."The good thing about the bike is the style and the speed"specifies Rami, 15, while Jean-Christian, of the same age, liked it but regrets"that the circuit is too small".

"The objective is less training to ride a motorcycle than awareness of the dangers of the road when driving a two-wheeler", tempers Jean Van Den Beuch, Deputy Director of Operational Missions at the Central Directorate of CRS and as such one of the managers of the CRS / GEMA track..

For girls, on the other hand, the results are more mixed: "yes it’s good, but it’s difficult to shift gears16-year-old Melinda explains.I was totally scared", admits Imane, 15, while Fatma and Angie, respectively 16 and 15, have"not liked at all".

As for Saïd (13 years "and half") and his two friends, too young, they bitterly regret having been kept apart:"They are 12 and 13 years old but I’m 13 and a half, it’s almost 14 no ?, he asks us…

"We should take them even smaller", confirms Christophe Guyot."At 5 years old, 10 years old, with small motorcycles. In the school environment we think of everything during youth, except learning to drive. Just as ecology should be compulsory in the program of all political parties, road safety should be a constant concern from the first years of schooling. !"

Also on the program, awareness of the dangers of alcohol by means of a short slalom on foot, wearing distorting glasses that simulate the presence of 1.5 g in the blood. "Damn, it’s too hyper !"summarizes one of the young volunteers:"it looks like you see but in real life you don’t see, it moves all the time !"The message about the effects of alcohol is clear, but let’s hope that it will be enough of a deterrent when it comes to taking the handlebars !

Finally, practicing firefighters explain, during an intervention simulation, the action to be taken in the event of an accident: prevent emergency services, maintain contact with the injured person, reassure him, do not move him and especially not take off your helmet – "it’s a very precise gesture that only firefighters can do".

At the request of local authorities, teachers, directors of schools or organizers of fairs and exhibitions, the CRS / GEMA trail moves for free below your home. For an annual budget of around 175,000 euros, it travels each year to around thirty cities and affects a total of nearly 15,000 people. In each city, it settles in on average three days and receives about 500 teenagers and a hundred adults anxious to learn about the 125.

The local authorities do not pay a cent: their only contribution is to provide electricity, a hundred protective barriers, a paved surface of about 50×50 meters (parking) and night security..

The track will take place from March 21 to 25 in Colomiers (31), from April 1 to 3 in Cagnes-sur-Mer (06), from April 6 to 8 in Ollioules (83), from May 3 to 7 in Lucon ( 85), from May 10 to 14 in Saint-Nazaire (44), from May 17 to 20 in Cholet (49), from May 23 to 25 in Saint-Maixent (79), from June 1 to 3 in Rennes (35) and from June 18 to 19 in Cherbourg (50).

And so that it stops at the bottom of your house, do not hesitate: go see your mayor! Because as Christophe Guyot aptly sums it up: "I understand that we are bitching against radars, and I am the first to criticize the increase in sanctions since Sarkozy. But you must also know how to notice good initiatives based on the concepts of prevention, responsibility and citizenship. !"

Eric MICHEL

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