Astrakhan Region: 'injured child' checked drivers' response to road accident

In the Astrakhan Region the GIBDD (road police) officers checked drivers' response by staging a road accident involving a child, and watched who of road users would stop seeing the bloodied boy and who would drive by.

Staging was held on the main street of the village of Krasny Yar. A 14-year-old schoolboy, smeared with red paint, was put under wheels of a car, with a bicycle next to him.

Inspectors watched the drivers' response: who would stop and render help. Some drivers lessened their speed and watched 'the scene', many drivers passed by without trying to help the casualty. During the whole campaign none of the drivers or pedestrians called the ambulance, the "Interfax" reported.

Children came up to the drivers, who stopped and rushed to help, and thanked that they did not remain indifferent to distress of another person. The children stuck the smiles 'Attentive driver' to the car windscreens of those drivers, who did not remain indifferent and stopped, informed the web page of the Department of Internal Affairs in the Astrakhan Region.

Boy's mother told she was "shocked" by the GIBDD's idea. According to Galina Razhigina, nobody warned her in advance, and when she learned that her son was "portrayed the dead person" on the roadway, she "felt uncomfortable", the "Lifenews" reported.

Lyudmila Alekseeva, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, criticized loudly this experiment of the Astrakhan Region GIBDD with a schoolboy allegedly injured in road accident, and named the Astrakhan GIBDD initiative to be "savagery". "Such staging is unacceptable, even if well-intentioned," the "Pravo.ru" quotes Alekseeva's speech.