Richmount pupil posters spell out road safety message
Mayor of Craigavon, Councillor Carla Lockhart, back centre, pictured with pupils of Richmount Primary School, school principal Mr Mark Hall, back left, and Mr Joe Garvey, chairman of Richmount Rural Community Association, at the launch of a road safety programme. INPT09-204.
SPEED can kill us, slow down now - that’s the stark message being spelt out by pupils of Richmount Primary School in a new poster campaign.
Primary 6 and 7 pupils have been drawing and painting to get the road safety message across and six of the drawing have been made into large signs which have been strategically placed in the school grounds in full view of motorists.
The signs will be changed every term to reinforce the message and leaflets will be distributed to passing motorists which will again reminding them to slow down when approaching the school.
Richmount School is situated on the busy Moy Road in the village of Scotch Street.
The road safety project, which was initiated by Richmount Rural Community Association, was prompted by community concerns over speed on the road, with the community group securing a grant of £4,902 for the project.
Joe Garvey, the association’s chairman, said, “While speed in the area is restricted to 40 mph some drivers exceed this speed and the parents of children feel there is going to be someone seriously injured or killed at this location unless drivers slow down.
“We were aware of the concerns of parents about vehicles speeding through the village so we applied for a DoE road safety grant and were very pleased to have been successful. The basic concept of this project is to try and get the message across to motorists is that by driving too fast in this area there could be a fatality or serious injury to a child.”
The Mayor, Councillor Carla Lockhart, officially launched the project at the school and said she fully supported the message. “The maximum speed limit is 40mph but when the children are entering or leaving school it needs to be much less,” she said.
“I also think it is great that the children from Richmount school have been involved in this project as they have been given the opportunity to get their message across and also be reminded of the need to be careful on our roads.
“The imagery and language used in the signs and leaflet are emotive, as they need to be, as we need to get a powerful message out there to drivers to slow down when approaching the school and the village of Scotch Street.”
The Mayor presented book tokens to the six children whose drawings were selected for the signs. They were Victoria Greenaway, Natalie Mayes, Sophie Reilly, Jacob Chambers, Ruth Lewis and Ross Newport. All the children involved received a certificate thanking them for their contribution.
The Mayor added “If we can save one child from death or injury on our roads then projects like this should be encouraged. It also sends out challenges to all the statutory agencies involved in how they can play their part in keeping our children safe on our roads.”
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Sunday 26 May 2013
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