
More than 1,000 primary school children have been learning essential road safety skills as part of a series of special events organised by Cheshire West and Chester Council’s road safety team.
During the past two weeks, year 6 children (aged 10 to 11 years) from 39 primary schools have taken part in range of safety workshops, delivered as part of the multi-agency Crucial Crew project.
The council’s road safety team has worked closely with PC Liz Stanton, the youth engagement officer for the Cheshire Police Safer Schools & Young Persons Partnership, to organise the event which is co-ordinated nationally by Child Safety Media.
PC Liz Stanton said: “This event has seen partnership working at its best. All the young people and staff have been enthusiastic and eager to learn . They will now go back to their schools and discuss the topics further with the help of an online resource and workbook that has been provided to every child that attended.”
The road safety team’s sessions reminded children to use the Green Cross Code and how important it is to ‘Be Safe – Be Seen’ when out and about, especially in the dark winter months.
Councillor Mark Henesy, cabinet member for communities and environment, said: “I’m delighted that the council has arranged these Crucial Crew sessions and such a large number of pupils have benefited in such a short period of time.
“Teachers have told us they’ve found the sessions to be highly interactive, fast paced, well-organised and engaging; allowing young people to discuss safety issues in a safe, open environment.
“These personal safety workshops help to prepare children for possible dangers in the outside world.”
With child pedestrian KSIs having increased in every one of the last 3 years in Cheshire West and Chester then I can understand the attraction of informing the captive children of the dangers on the road (see http://www.travelindependent.org.uk/area_016.html).
And with Cheshire West and Chester being one of the Traffic Authorities that has a particularly regressive interpretation of the DfT 01/2013 guidance on speed limits then it continues to endorse 30mph speeds on most residential and community streets.
I trust that children (and parents) are being informed that many of them will not (as research shows) be able to reliably distinguish between the speed of vehicles above 20mph.
Rod King, 20’s Plenty for Us
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