Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM) was awarded with FIA the Road Safety Award by the President of the Federation Internationale de l’ Automobile (FIA), Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The prize giving ceremony was carried out during the 2023 FIA Annual General Assembly, held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The prestigious award was received in recognition of the outstanding efforts made by the ACM to improve road safety level around school zones in Moldova. 

The FIA award recognizes the special contribution of the ACM team to legislative changes, since, as a result of their constant advocacy efforts, supported by the Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST) through the FIA Foundation Advocacy Hub, the Republic of Moldova approved the amendments to the Road Traffic Regulation, in September 2022.These amendments mandated that all school zones must have installed a maximum speed limit of 30 km/h. 

In addition to this major achievement, ACM has continued to implement safety interventions around schools, ensuring that new regulations are reflected in a practical infrastructural way. Using the Star Rating for Schools application and with additional support from the FIA Road Safety Grant Programme FIA and UNICEF Moldova, ACM assessed and improved the infrastructure at three schools in three localities: Balti, Ungheni and Singerei. 

A notable example is the “Dimitrie Cantemir” Theoretical High School in Singerei, where teachers, parents and students collaborated closely with ACM and the local municipal authorities to implement interventions for improving the level of students' trips safety in the school area. As for securing the pedestrian crossing in the front of the institution, the interventions’ measures included: narrowing the traffic lanes with the help of plastic poles, installing high-visibility road signs, applying reflective road markings and colored paint on paths to highlight the pedestrian area. 

ACM Vice President Tatiana Mihailova mentioned: “Being awarded with the FIA President's Road Safety Award is a great honor for our club and a high recognition of the daily efforts of the ACM team in road safety field. We express our immense gratitude to the FIA and the FIA Foundation for the credit granted to us, the solid partnership and the continuous support of our initiatives. We hope that the national policy regarding 30 km/h speed limits will save lives and help Moldova achieve the UN's global road safety goals.” 

The award gained by the ACM is not only recognition of the efforts and work done, but also a significant step towards creating a safer road environment for Moldovan children and a source of inspiration and impetus for other organizations to dare to follow this path.