With their video, the students clearly showed that they understand why it is important not to allow yourself to be distracted in traffic. As a reward, they will go go-karting for an afternoon with the entire group and round off the day with a well-deserved portion of chips.
Young people aged 15–17 end up in the Emergency Department due to a traffic accident almost twice as often as 30–49-year-olds. Peer pressure has a significantly negative influence on young people’s behaviour. Through the Fight Your Inner Monkey teaching programme, the students at Corlaer College were given tools to deal with this. They were introduced to their own ‘inner monkey’. Often, it is this ‘monkey inside you’ that wants to imitate the group at all costs in order to fit in. Even when this leads to unsafe behaviour in traffic. Examples include using a mobile phone while cycling, performing stunts, cycling without lights, or riding a moped without a helmet.
Fight Your Inner Monkey is made possible in Gelderland in part by the Province of Gelderland and is offered through Totally Traffic Gelderland. TotallyTraffic (TT) has a comprehensive, ongoing range of traffic safety and traffic education programmes and focuses on young people aged 12 to 18.