Local police initiative to reduce accidents: cases dropped by 55 percent from 2017 to today
SASSARI. The “Smartphone zombie” campaign promoted five years ago by the local police is starting to give concrete results and which since 2017 has seen a drop in pedestrians involved in road accidents that is around 55 percent. We have gone from 93 cases in 2017 to 52 in 2021 (while in 2018 there were 84, 77 in 2019 and 54 in 2020). The one born in Sassari is the only national campaign aimed at raising awareness among pedestrians on the risks associated with the use of mobile phones while crossing the street and Sassari is the first European city to have declared war on “smombies”, a neologism that is precisely for Smartphone zombies.
It has now been shown that anyone crossing the street with their eyes on their mobile phone, focusing their attention only on the display and isolating themselves from everything else, is at risk of an accident at any time. And if it doesn’t happen it’s just a matter of luck. Several European realities had been interested in the prevention campaign of the local police of Sassari and also the French TV had landed in Sassari to learn about the effects of an activity which – together with the sanctions – proved to be effective. The initiative of the local police agents led by commander Gianni Serra started after an initial analysis carried out in 2016: it emerged that among the pedestrians involved in accidents with injuries, a significant number saw negative protagonists as those who were using the mobile phone.
And therefore, from that investigation, the awareness of having a problem (which is worldwide) concerning pedestrians has matured: too many cross the street looking at the mobile phone, not only by phoning anymore but also by browsing internet pages, reading and writing messages. watsapp: «An attitude that obviously goes to seriously jeopardize their safety – underlined the commander of the local police Gianni Serra -. So we designed and developed the “Smartphone zombie” campaign that we propose every year. We never stopped ».
And the conviction on the effectiveness of the prevention campaign was strengthened by the results: “We see that through the campaign, characterized by commercials, dissemination of brochures in the streets and squares, accompanied by a mild repressive action (we have not reached the 100 sanctions ‘year) we begin to spread the idea that it is necessary to change certain behaviors “. At the level of sanctions it must be said that the local police act by referring to Article 190 paragraph 2 of the Highway Code which in practice governs the behavior of pedestrians when crossing the road (they must use crossings and in any case proceed with the necessary attention to avoid situations of danger for oneself and for others). Obviously, those who are distracted by the mobile phone are unable to guarantee the requested attention and for this reason the penalty is triggered. The hope – manifested for some time – is that the legislator intervenes with a precise rule and clearly regulates the prohibition, covering the void that currently exists. The campaign in Sassari will continue in 2022 with new resources and further initiatives.