We start with the youngest children, because even kindergarten and school children are already involved in road traffic. The police officers from the traffic puppet theater have rehearsed a new play just for them, which they would like to show to all 2600 boys and girls starting school this summer in the coming weeks. Chief Superintendent Katja Flanz, Chief Superintendent Christina Kleine and Chief Superintendent Carsten Jahns, all traffic safety advisors at the Gelsenkirchen police, spent three months sawing, screwing and painting, because the stage on which they perform is also completely new and, at 5.20 meters, is now almost twice as big as the old one. The lighting and sound technology as well as the entire room decorations were also renewed.
The play that the three are performing is called "Tim & Lisa go to school". In terms of content, it is based on actual dangerous situations and causes of accidents in Gelsenkirchen. On the way to school, Tim & Lisa have to step between parked cars to cross the road or use a crosswalk - classic dangerous situations that children are confronted with time and again. Together with the puppet policeman and in dialog with the officers themselves, the future schoolchildren are prepared for the safe journey to school, playfully, with a dose of humour, but always linked with important and memorable messages such as "Stop at the stop stone, so it doesn't bang!"
But corona is currently making many things more difficult, including the work of our road safety advisors. This is because direct contact with the nursery children is not possible at the moment. This means that the Gelsenkirchen police can no longer visit the facilities and performances in the puppet theater can no longer take place in front of an audience. But if the children can't come to the puppet theater, the puppet theater will come to them. We have filmed the traffic puppet show and now want to reach the youngest children virtually with this important prevention work. The puppet show can now be found on the central "Polizei NRW Kids" channel on YouTube. Here's the video.
The road safety advisors are supported by the city's regulatory partners, who work together to improve road safety.