Two young Canadians recently won honours for their rail safety knowledge in ILCAD’s third annual international drawing contest for children.

More than 500 entries were submitted for the contest by children around the world. After the almost 2000 public votes were tallied, the top ten drawings in each category were recently announced. Among the winners were two Canadian children.

Four-year-old Mia Cinquino of Saint-Constant, Québec won second prize in the age 4 – 7 category. Mia’s  mother says Mia drew her picture because her grandfather worked for Canadian railways for most of his life.

Mia Cinquino’s winning drawing.

In the 8 – 12 age group, eight-year-old Allen Zhou from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, won tenth prize for his depiction of motorists waiting safely at a level crossing with double tracks.

Allen Zhou’s winning drawing.

 Congratulations Mia and Allen!

All of the winning drawings are displayed on the ILCAD website and will be used during the ILCAD 2013 campaign. They will also be exhibited at the United Nations in Geneva during the second UN Global Road Safety Week (May 6 – 12, 2013).

This contest helps to raise awareness about the risks for both pedestrians and motorists at level crossings. It is part of the International Union of Railways’ (UIC) efforts to encourage people to “Act safely at level crossings,” the motto for International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD).

More than 40 countries, including Canada, will participate in ILCAD 2013 on May 7^th to help educate people about rail safety. Why not share the winning drawings with the children in your life and encourage them to create their own?

Do your part to keep the rail-safety message top of mind for everyone, because playing around trains can be deadly.

The voting process for the drawings competing in the 3rd UIC/ILCAD international drawing contest for children on the occasion of ILCAD to be held on 7 May is now closed. We have received about 2000 votes within 2 weeks!!!

The competition was open to children everywhere (including those of UIC HQ colleagues and UIC members’ staff) and were divided into two categories: from 4 to 7 years old and from 8 to 12 years old.

Here are the results of the contest below:

In the category 4 to 7 years old

The winners are:

In the category 8 to 12 years old

The winners are:

This third edition has met again a great success with more than 500 drawings (+25% compared to 2011):

• 272 drawings in the 4-5 years category
• 245 drawings in the 8-12 years category

from different countries mainly Poland but also India, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, France, Hungary, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and U.S.A.

I take this opportunity to thank all the participants, teachers, parents and railway colleagues for their excellent response and their contribution to the success of this contest.

The winning drawings will be uploaded on www.ilcad.org, on our facebook page and will be visible in an exhibition dedicated to ILCAD taking place a whole week from 6 -12 May 2013 at the United Nations in Geneva during the 2nd UN Global Road Safety Week taking place in all UN regions.

For organisational reasons all the winners will receive their prize as soon as possible after the International Level Crossing Awareness Day campaign.

Save the date of ILCAD on 7 May 2013 at the UN in Geneva

You are all kindly invited to take part in the ILCAD 2013 international press conference organized together with a round table with experts from different countries and sectors (road, rail, institutions and specialists in human factors, in education…) to take place at the UN in Geneva on 7 May 2013 (see programme using the links hereafter). Among others Mrs. Eva Molnar, Director, UNECE Transport Division will open the event.

For more information and registration click on http://www.unece.org/trans/roadsafe…

SEE 2012 RESULTS

SEE 2011 RESULTS