And there was another type of training happening today, this time with a cross-section of various ministries. Public officers have been undergoing a three day defensive driving course that is a part of the Second Road Safety Project, organized by the Ministry of Economic Development.
The objective of this training was to create awareness for road safety in public officers. They learned to be more vigilant, and how to prepare a vehicle before going on the road.
Today, the officers were learning one of the most intimidating parts of driving: parallel parking.
This was facilitated by retired public officer Paul Schmidt and he and the office administration for the project, Sylvian Neal, told us more.
Sylvian Neal, Office Administrator, Second Road Safety Project
"It discusses various driving strategies, being alert, way you can be alert while using the road, different things you need to do before planning a trip and the effects of different, I would say, chemicals, different medicines, the effect that would have on a driver when it comes to traveling or planning a trip. So those I would say would be an overarching message of what is being taught. And then additionally today we will be having the closing ceremony and they also have the practicals that are taking place now as you have seen earlier."
"The participants start with a walk around of the vehicle where they tell the instructor what they need to do before they go on the trip, the basic checks such as oil, checking the fluid levels of the vehicles, checking that their lights are working, their tires, and then finally we end off with the parallel parking exercise where the participants have about two minutes to basically line up their vehicle beside the cones that you have seen and these cones represent another vehicle that would be on the road in a real life scenario."
Paul Schmidt, Retired Public Servant/Instructor
"The idea is not about teaching anybody to drive but the simply bring a level of awareness to the minds of those who uses our roadways. It is about trying to understand the role which you play within the larger scheme of things, for me, the principle would be it is a case where everybody out there, whether you're a driver, a motorist, a cyclist, a pedestrian, all have a role to play."
"One life lost is one life too many. The reality is when a life is lost, it impact upon not only the country and the economy but the person's home, the social aspect of it, the grief it brings to a family given the lost of life."
And there was another simultaneous training happening with another group of public officers. This one was a first responders training during which EMT personnel, Javier Canul, taught the officers what to do in case of emergency.
Sylvian Neal, Office Administrator, Second Road Safety Project
"The first responders is being instructed by Mr Javier Canul and it basically is to sensitize the participants about being in a scenarios where they are the first responder at incident site, RTI site, crash site. So in that training, they basically learn different ways of how they can stop blood from rushing, stop bleeding, different ways of how they can move a patient while on the ground, how they can assist with moving someone from an area that is really dangerous but before they do that they also have different precautions that they need to take so all of this is being taught by Mr Javier Canul and then he utilises a lot a lot of practicals various practicals where the training is really hands on there is another aspect of teaching the participants about various types of bleeding so he really breaks that down into detail and then like I said it's really hands-on so he also has been doing hands-free CPR instead of the mouth to mouth CPR that most people are used to know so that is to try and get these participants equipped with the knowledge to try and do something if they ever are in a scenario where the first responder at a site and some of these people are from the Department of Transport, the Ministry of Finance you know it is very essential and it can always be useful for them in the future."
The closing ceremony was held this afternoon where the officers received their certificates.
