Today, at about 8:00 a.m. on Amir Temur street in Samarkand, driver of a public Isuzu bus hit and killed a third-grader boy who was crossing the road near school, the press service of the Samarkand provincial traffic police department said.
The department added that the boy was crossing the road "in the wrong place."
A criminal case was launched against the driver F. S. under Violation of traffic safety rules resulting in death charge of the Criminal Code. He was detained, with investigation underway.
It is noteworthy that the Provincial traffic police department illustrated its statement with a photograph, which probably shows the scene of the incident. On the left side of the photo, there is a dummy of a schoolboy standing on the dividing strip. Such dummies are often installed on the streets near schools. While, there is apparently no pedestrian crossing near the school that would allow children to cross the road safely - it is not visible either in the photo or on the map.
Cardboard dummies of pedestrians not only does not help make the streets safe, but, on the contrary, increases the risks.
This method is dangerous because people behind the wheel get used to the fact that there are figures of children here, accordingly, they stop slowing down, and when real children, adults appear at the crossing, they are not perceived as a reason to slow down, since the eye gets used to it, and in fact it becomes even worse than before.
In addition, real children can be overlooked behind the dummies. However, the installation of pedestrian figures continues throughout the country. Recently, the Tashkent province traffic police department showed more than 40 pedestrian figures prepared for installation, including schoolchildren and an elderly person.
