Be bright, be seen!
During 2012 in Sakhalin Oblast, just off the east coast of Russia, there were 267 recorded road traffic crashes involving pedestrians. An increase of 6% from 2011. 30 died. More than 250 were seriously injured. Many occured at night, and of those, almost all were caused by low visibility of the pedestrian.
In a dynamic and immediate response to these facts, the ‘Be bright, be seen!’ road safety awareness campaign was launched by the Sakhalin Road Safety Council on 16 January, 2013. The multimedia campaign aims to increase awareness of the dangers present on the roads at night time and encourage people to make themselves more visible.
The heroes of this campaign are a group of break dancers known among Sakhalin youth as ‘P.S. Crew’. The guys encourage everyone to ‘be bright and be seen’ on billboards and posters scattered around the streets of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, as well as in city locations. The dancers also star in a short video airing on Sakhalin channels.‘Be bright, be seen!’ will run until the end of March and includes a number of events where volunteers will hand out reflective elements featuring the campaign logo.The campaign will also host a photo/video contest aimed at Sakhaliners aged under 18 who are asked to send in photos or video clips taken in the dark of people wearing reflective gear.
Statistics from the State Road Safety Department of the Internal Affairs Department of Russia for Sakhalin Oblast.
