Police and ‘Sapienza’ join forces to educate young people about road and rail safety

Learning to recognise a risk before it becomes a danger. Understanding the impact that peer pressure, distraction, moral disengagement or overconfidence in one’s own abilities can have. Experiencing the consequences of a choice in a controlled environment, to gain greater awareness in real life. It is from this concept of prevention that Meti – Educational Models in Immersive Technology for Road and Rail Safety – was born.

The project is the result of a collaboration between the Central Directorate of the Traffic Police, the Railway Police and the Special Units of the State Police, and the Department of Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome, as part of the 2014–2020 ‘Legalità’ Complementary Operational Programme (POC) for Action and Cohesion. The project reached a key milestone on Friday 9 October, with an institutional meeting in Rome that brought together all the initiative’s representatives, marking the operational transition towards the launch of educational activities across the country.

The programme involves the Traffic Police and the Railway Police, alongside pupils, teachers and trainers from upper secondary schools in Campania, Puglia, Calabria, Basilicata and Sicily. “At the heart of Meti,” reads a statement, “lies a specific educational challenge: to use immersive virtual reality and 360° technologies to transform prevention from the mere imparting of rules into an experience capable of engaging emotions, critical thinking and decision-making processes.”

The project examines some of the key psychological mechanisms that can influence risky behaviour: from peer pressure to the tendency to downplay or justify one’s own actions, from distraction to underestimating danger, right through to overconfidence in one’s own abilities. These factors, particularly in situations relating to road and rail transport, can influence individual choices and have significant consequences. Through immersive environments and highly realistic simulations, young people are placed in situations where they must directly confront potentially critical scenarios, thereby developing a greater awareness of their own reactions, decision-making processes and the consequences of their actions.

The immersive experience, however, is only one part of the programme. Each activity is accompanied by sessions of guided reflection, discussion and review, led by facilitators and psychologists, so that what is experienced through the simulation can be transformed into conscious and lasting learning. The methodology adopted is experiential, participatory and scientifically validated, and incorporates pre- and post-intervention assessment tools, including questionnaires, analysis of implicit and explicit attitudes, and the collection of behavioural data. The aim is to assess the effectiveness of the programmes not only in terms of knowledge, but also with regard to the participants’ decision-making and motivational processes.