School children across the country will be reminded of how to stay safe around roads for national road safety week from 7th - 13th November in association with charity organisation, Brake.
Young pedestrians are the most vulnerable of all road users. As well as being difficult to spot, youngsters can act unpredictably and run into the road without warning. Sixty-six percent of pedestrians hurt in road accidents in Barrow last year were under 16 years old and 40% were under 11.
Children of 11 and under are the most vulnerable group in Barrow whereas 11 to 16 year olds are most at risk in the rest of the county.
The Safer Roads for Cumbria partnership is coordinating various activities in the Barrow area including:
-Introducing a junior road safety officer scheme in four primary schools
-Mobile flashing speed indicator devices
-Road Awareness Training by the fire service
-Handing out fluorescent jackets to the four schools taking part (supplied by 3M)
-Distributing ‘watch out there’s a kid about’ leaflets
-Parking the road safety unit outside the selected schools to give parents advice and information
-Having a local police officer at the schools at the start and end of the day
-Parking the safety camera van around Park View school
-Projecting road safety video clips on the side of Barrow Town Hall
The junior road safety officer scheme is where two children are elected in each school to be the dedicated pupil road safety representative. The scheme has been successfully implemented in many areas of the country to get road safety messages into schools. Junior road safety officers are responsible for giving short road safety presentations to their schools, liaising with senior road safety officers and community police officers, distributing road safety resources in their schools and updating a special road safety white board in their schools.
County councillor Geoff Hodgson, spokesman for community safety said:
“Keeping children safe on the roads is high on our list of priorities all year round, however taking part in the Brake road safety week gives us the opportunity to step up the road safety messages within schools. The road safety teams in Barrow and across the county are working hard with local schools and communities to promote road safety, through education, training, enforcement, engineering and publicity campaigns to reduce the number of people that are killed and seriously injured on the roads”.
Chief Inspector of Operations for South Cumbria Kevin McGilloway, chairman of the CRASH sub-group said:
"We are very pleased to be working closely with the Safer Roads for Cumbria partnership and schools in delivering a pro-active road safety initiative. We hope that through this joint working the roads will become a safer place for all road users in the area, especially children".
MP John Hutton will be paying a special visit to Greengate Junior School on Friday 11th November at 2.00pm to present the junior road safety officers with their fluorescent jackets and white notice boards to take back to their schools.