The Most Important Grade This School Year Is for Safety

The new school year will bring mathematics, Croatian, science, foreign languages, tests and grades. But the most important “five” will not appear in any gradebook. It will come from knowing how to stay safe in traffic.

Traffic safety is a subject children take almost every day, even though it is not on the school timetable. It cannot be learned by memorizing rules alone, and there is no chance to retake the test next week. The essential lesson is simple: stop, look, listen, wait and cross only when it is safe.

Children learn early that they should cross at marked places, stop at a red light and look left and right before crossing. They learn traffic signs and warnings, then gradually become more independent road users. The real tests come in ordinary moments, when they are rushing to school, friends are waiting on the other side, a message arrives on a phone or a familiar route no longer receives their full attention.

The warning is especially important near railway lines. Trains follow different rules from cars and cannot stop quickly. Their stopping distance can reach 1,500 meters, meaning that once a driver sees a person or vehicle on the track, there may be too little space to stop. At railway crossings, people must check the signals, look, listen and wait as long as necessary.

Safety also means making an independent decision. If someone else crosses the track, walks around a lowered barrier or decides there is still time, that does not make it safe to follow. Tracks are only for crossing at marked and permitted locations. They are not places to play, socialize or take a shortcut, while walking along them, throwing objects at trains or touching signaling equipment is strictly forbidden. The article also warns against climbing onto railway cars and poles, though its final sentence is cut off.