Painted horses for Russian road safety
Traffic police in Moscow offered rides on horses and ponies painted
as zebras in an attempt to improve road safety and raise awareness among
Russia's drivers.
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Fake zebras used to reinforce traffic safely in Moscow. |
The police dispatched the fake zebras to several different locations
in the Russian capital, where officials in orange vests walked them over
zebra crossings and handed out flyers to passing drivers.
Some held up rainbow-coloured umbrellas over the painted animals to
protect them from the rain, footage aired on television showed.
Russian roads are notoriously dangerous and drivers still rarely give
way to pedestrians.
More than 9,500 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in
road accidents in the first six months of 2010, according to official
statistics.
Nearly half of all traffic accidents in the country's big cities are
caused by cars hitting pedestrians, and a third of those occur on
crossings, according to traffic police figures published last month.
Though police officials said that only safe paint would be used on
the animals, animal rights activists still fumed over the idea, accusing
the police of "treating animals like garbage."
"Children understand that paints are toxic for animals: they can
cause internal swelling," the Interfax news agency quoted president of
Vita animal rights group Irina Novozhilova as saying.
AFP |
