Safety conscious Laura Murphy from St Gregory’s Primary School in Workington will display her artwork to hundreds of people on Wednesday 20th July.
Primary Schools in Whitehaven and Workington were invited to take part in a road safety poster competition as part of the 'respect' road safety campaign in West Cumbria to raise awareness of the dangers of driving too fast on the roads, especially around schools.
As well as appearing in various public locations in West Cumbria, the winning poster will now be displayed on a massive 48-sheet billboard at the side of New Road in Whitehaven for two weeks to really push home the slow down message.
The campaign is designed to promote respect for speed limits and reduce the number of road causalities in the area. In 2004, ten people were killed and 120 were seriously injured on roads in Allerdale and Copeland. Cumbria as a whole saw 57 people killed and 377 seriously injured on the roads last year.
'respect' is being run by Cumbria County Council, Capita Road Safety and Cumbria Constabulary, and employs a number of measures including:
·A speed commitment pledge, where drivers sign a pledge to show that they are committed to slowing down
·Speed awareness training, where certain drivers in the 'respect' areas will have the chance to swap fines and points for education
·Speed indicator devices flashing-up drivers’ current speeds at the roadside
·Young driver training for newly qualified drivers
Bridget Stanley, Capita Road Safety Officer, said:
"We have had a fantastic response from the public. Since the campaign started in West Cumbria in May, 103 drivers received speed awareness training from road safety officers, five drivers have faced prosecution, one driver has been disqualified and a total of 320 speed commitment pledges have been returned".
"Laura's poster was chosen as it clearly illustrates the key message of this campaign, which is to simply slow down, especially around schools."