Working together for safe transport

You can never talk enough about it, and you can never start learning about road safety early enough. The MKIF (Hungarian Concession Infrastructure Development) Zrt. places great emphasis on this in its communications, alongside the upgrading of expressways and planned motorway developments. In July, our newspaper presented a detailed summary in July of the numerous (mainly online) channels through which the company conducts actions and campaigns to promote safer transport. However, there are also a number of elements in the tools used to achieve strategic goals that require a personal presence.

An important part of the organisation's educational activities is focused on children. As they say in a recent Facebook post:

Children should be introduced to traffic culture and road safety as early as possible, so that by the time they become active drivers, they have the "power" to drive responsibly and in a cultured manner, considering other road users as equal partners.

Playful introduction to the seriousness of transport

To this end, an educational corner has been installed in a special interactive play centre called MiniPolisz in Budapest, in a collaborative effort. At MiniPolisz, children aged 3-12 can playfully explore the world of adults, and in the corner created by MKIF Zrt. they can build, among other things, motorway diversions, with a mini engineering and mini motorway, the operator's communications directorate told us.

They stressed that this is a playful way of teaching young children the basics of traffic culture, but it is also important for a number of reasons. "It is through the children that we can reach the parents, and we find that on the roads it is very often the children who tell the parents when they pass a sign and warn the father or mother behind the wheel."

Safety Week provided a special opportunity to

The Society was also actively involved in the Safety Week series of events from 16 to 21 September: in collaboration with the ORFK National Accident Prevention Committee and MiniPolis and HUMDA, children were welcomed at the MKIF stands in the Playhouse, where they first had to take a theoretical KRESZ test and then had the opportunity to test their "driving skills" in various traffic situations in a real car equipped with unique technology. They were then shown the work of the highway engineers, road maintenance and closures, and thanks to the road safety quiz, they were also able to start on the road to becoming responsible and aware road users.

As part of the Week of Safety, visitors were given a personal insight into the everyday life of the MKIF engineering team in Lakitelk.

Open doors for those interested in the road sector

The operator is constantly organising open days for motorway engineers, which are open to adults and children: "On the one hand, we can bring our colleagues closer to the people, and on the other hand we support the training of our staff, as this is an opportunity for those interested in the road sector to gain insight", the management informed us. The same objective is served by the career guidance days organised in primary schools, where MKIF experts arrive in a road inspector's car and demonstrate on mini KRESZ tracks what a road inspector does and what to look out for in traffic.

In addition to this, they are also cooperating with NIT Hungary, the interest group of carriers and passenger carriers: "This means a joint reflection and exchange of experience with the 4900 Hungarian companies, during which we will listen to their suggestions and advice."

Help is even faster with motorcycle ambulances

Even more directly, the MKIF Zrt. will help improve safety on the roads by strengthening its already close cooperation with the National Ambulance Service. Under the terms of the contract between the two organisations, MKIF Zrt. will have motor ambulances stationed at its three engineering sites in Gödöllő, Martonvásáro and Bicske from May to the end of October.

One of the big advantages of this service is that motor ambulances can arrive on the scene in minutes, even if the traffic situation makes this difficult. The paramedics can then start patient care and organise the patient journey until the ambulance arrives on the scene. All the equipment essential for patient care is on board, except the ventilator and the drug delivery pump.

What's more, ambulance drivers not only help people on the motorway network, they can also alert people in the surrounding villages. This also improves the safety of the people living there.

They also draw on good international experience

In a further recent development, the Society has joined Europe's largest civil road safety organisation. Established by the European Commission, the European Road Safety Charter is the largest civil society platform for road safety, with more than 4,000 public and private organisations having joined so far. "We expect that this will make it easier to gather information, experience and good practices that we can then apply at home", said the MKIF Zrt. communications directorate.