DHIAfest | exhibition of traffic accidents in a hippie village
Our sponsors and partners, whose support made this DHIAfest journey possible: Attica Group, KTEL Athens, KTEL Thessaloniki, KTEL Igoumenitsa, KTEL Chania, and Hellenic Train. Thank you!
On September 19th was the second day of the DHIAfest festival. My adventure through the cities/villages of Greece continues. The next stop was Palaiochora on the island of Crete.
I met some wonderful people, a man named Eftihis Koukoutsakis and his wife from England, Rebecca Hamilton Grosrouge. How would you describe these wonderful people? Hmmm, it is impossible. This is one of those cases when people combine so many different qualities and personality traits that it is impossible to somehow convey all of it. All of their incredible energy simply cannot be transmitted, especially when you have only known them for a few hours. However, you immediately feel an incredible friendliness, hospitality and willingness to share their experience with you. What is most amazing is that their personality traits sometimes contradict each other, but that actually makes talking to them even more interesting.
Eftihis Koukoutsakis Rebecca Hamilton Grosrouge
For example, Eftihis lives a hippie lifestyle. He lives with his wife and three daughters in a community, basically a small village about 10 minutes away from Palaiochora, where many foreigners live. Around 35 people currently live there. English, Greek, Luxembourgish, French, Albanian, German, Swiss, Italian, Czech, Norwegian, Belgian, Irish, American and South African people. The contradiction is that he is a successful businessman and is involved in many different fields, but at the same time he looks and talks to you as if you have been best friends for many years. How his entrepreneurial spirit and his hippie character coexist in one person still amazes me! I first met his wife Rebecca through her creative work as drawings, crafts, jewellery, postcards, etc, in their small souvenir shop. Her works are so colourful and have such a variety of different styles that you immediately start imagining that the person who created them probably looks somewhat similar: hair in different colours of the rainbow, combining clothes of different styles, etc. But no! When I saw her, I even discreetly asked one of the workers sitting next to me “is that really his wife?” She looked like a traditional English housewife, of course, a very beautiful one. But I did not expect such a huge difference between the style of the artist and her work. As I have always realised over the years, never judge a person by their appearance. It sometimes does not reflect the person at all.
So, why did I visit their village? Officially, Eftihis is our sponsor and partner of the festival, and he invited me to tell me about their exhibition connected to the problem of careless and dangerous driving. In the community, they have been creating different exhibitions for more than 20 years, attention(!), completely free for visitors , and four of them have been dedicated specifically to the topic of dangerous driving. How is the topic of inclusion connected to dangerous driving? It is very simple! If you are lucky enough not to die after an accident, you will most likely end up with health problems for the rest of your life.
Eftihis “when I was little, I saw a Roma man, the man who did not have an arm. This image stayed with me for many years.” Unfortunately, this was not the only reason why this exhibition exists. Eftihis has lost many relatives and friends in road accidents. This year, they focused on preventing dangerous driving on the roads. The exhibition is located in a small stone house that his grandfather built himself, using simple tools, many of which he also made with his own hands. In the centre of the room there is a large table on which Eftihis and Rebecca’s children created roads and placed toy cars on them. The idea is that visitors have to look for the places where the cars are positioned against the rules. It may seem like a simple children’s game, but in reality, behind every little car there is a real-life situation that could lead to an accident.
A car did not stop at a STOP sign and entered the intersection, thereby creating a dangerous situation.
A car entered a roundabout on the wrong side and could therefore collide with cars coming from the opposite direction.
A huge truck is turning on a narrow road, blocking the opposite side and creating a risk of collision with a car coming from the other direction.
A car is driving through a roundabout while ignoring the rules of traffic and the direction in which cars are supposed to move.
A motorcyclist is trying to drive between two cars on a narrow road, creating a situation where there is practically no room left for manoeuvring if one of the cars suddenly starts moving towards him.
exhibition of traffic accidents exhibition of traffic accidents exhibition of traffic accidents exhibition of traffic accidents exhibition of traffic accidents
I liked the idea behind this exhibition because it does not simply try to scare people with the consequences of accidents. Instead, visitors are given the opportunity to notice the problem themselves and understand what exactly is wrong in each situation.
What is especially interesting is that they use toy cars and a children’s game to explain a rather serious problem. At first, you simply look at the little roads on the table and try to find the mistakes, but then you start to understand that practically every one of these small situations could happen on a real road. Remember? The idea of the exhibition is education. Rebecca and Eftihis invite children from local schools and teach them seemingly very simple things. Alcohol and driving are two incompatible things, just like learning how to cross the road correctly. Yes! These are basic things, but they are basic for adults, while children discover and understand the world gradually. It is very important to give them information about safety as early as possible. The rule for crossing the road is simple, stop, look both ways, listen, because there might be a car coming quickly around the corner in your direction. It may seem like basic information that every adult knows, but a child is only beginning to navigate the world independently and needs to learn how to react correctly to potentially dangerous situations. There is also a real road sign saying “STOP” on the wall, which looks completely damaged. They found it in the area around their village. Rebecca said: “even a STOP sign cannot stop bullets, so how can we be sure it will stop drivers?” Therefore, it is very important to keep repeating the traffic rules, be careful behind the wheel, and follow the rules when crossing the road. A sign itself cannot guarantee safety. It simply shows the rule, while safety depends on whether people actually follow that rule. When I asked what could be improved in legislation and in the organisation of road traffic, they immediately gave me several examples:
In Greece, 10 police officers can block a road in order to stop every car coming towards them and check whether the driver is wearing a seatbelt, has a first-aid kit and carries other required items. Instead, they suggest that one police car could be hidden somewhere nearby and stop cars selectively, rather than blocking the traffic and checking every driver one after another.
Sometimes the signs placed on the roads do not correspond to the actual situation. For example, at night, when visibility is poor, a driver following a road sign could drive directly into a mountain because the arrow points exactly in that direction, even though the road should actually go somewhere else. Therefore, in their opinion, it is important not only to install road signs, but also to regularly check whether they actually correspond to the road situation and whether they are clear to drivers.
Reconsider the legislation concerning driving under the influence of alcohol. In their opinion, even one can of beer is already enough reason not to get behind the wheel. If you are going to drive, alcohol and driving simply should not be combined. Never.
Reconsider the organisation of parking. Everyone who has ever been to Greece will immediately understand what I mean. The state should reduce the number of cars parked on the sides of roads and make sure that parked vehicles do not create additional dangerous situations for other road users.
More educational materials for children in schools. In their opinion, conversations about road safety should start in childhood, not when a person gets their driving licence for the first time.
Eftihis also told me about a park not far from Palaiochora. On July 28, 2004, Christos Polentas, who was 25 years old, died in a road accident in the Neratzia area while travelling from Paleochora towards Chania. After his death, his father created this park in memory of his son, as well as all those who have died in road accidents and their families. There is a small stone church of Saint Christopher in the park, the patron saint of motorists.
An especially interesting detail is that on November 20, 2011, on the World Day of remembrance for road traffic victims, a memorial sculpture dedicated to the United Nations decade of action for road safety was unveiled in the park. The sculpture represents an olive tree growing among the rocks of Crete, its five roots symbolise the permanent members of the UN security council, its five branches represent the continents, and its 193 leaves represent the UN member states at that time. His father will never be able to see his son alive again, but he is doing everything he can so that other parents never have to experience what he experienced on June 28, 2004. To finish the article on a good note. At the beginning of our meeting with Eftihis, we visited the museum he works on. There are tools that his relatives used, a collection of gem-stones, and things created by his ancestors with their own hands. When Eftihis was telling me about his family, he mentioned his grandmother. An incredible story of courage and separatism, but that is a story for another time hehehe!!!
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