A Birmingham-based road safety organisation is encouraging primary school pupils from across the West Midlands to enter a competition to create lyrics for a song promoting road safety.
All entries will be featured on the DriveSafe & StaySafe* website, and the winning entry will be professionally set to music and film and promoted on radio and through social media.
It will also feature in a new cartoon series being produced by DriveSafe & StaySafe to help keep children safe on the roads, especially when travelling to and from school.
‘The Conies’ (pic above) features a cartoon family based on traffic cones that deliver safety messages through their antics and storylines. The series is being produced with the support of the European Regional Development Fund and rock legend and philanthropist Rick Wakeman.
Children up to the age of 11 are being invited to submit lyrics for the competition, either individually or as a group, for a song in any style.
Fay Goodman, DriveSafe & StaySafe founder, said: “Given that over 85,000 children were either killed or injured in road accidents in the UK within 500 metres of a school in the six years to 2011, we wanted local children to use their creativity in support of our video series that will develop and engage their awareness and safety in a fun and interactive way.”
The competition closes on Friday 29 May and the winning entry will be announced on Thursday 2 July. Entry forms and more details are available on the DriveSafe & StaySafe website.
The competition will support the upcoming UN Global Road Safety Week 2015 (4-10 May) the theme of which is ‘Save kids’ lives’.
*DriveSafe & StaySafe
DriveSafe & StaySafe is a West Midlands-based not-for-profit organisation committed to increasing levels of road safety and personal safety awareness with the main aim of reducing deaths and serious accidents among children on their way to and from school.
Thank you Nick for your comment and reference to this information. Our report was finalised last November 2014 so this updated information is very useful – thank you.
Fay Goodman
0
It is a shame that the quoted data used is up to 2011. More recent and therefore more relevant data is available.
Nick, Lancashire
0
Honor
I completely agree that it is not a case of “either-or”. Road safety education has an important part to play in road safety. My point was that the #savekidslives initiative is primarily about children educating adults to change their behaviour rather than the other way round.
Perhaps it would be useful to outline the mix of initiatives and resources being developed by RSGB for #savekidslives showing how many are focussed on educating adults as opposed to children.
Rod King 20’s Plenty for Us
0
Surely road safety is not an “either-or” matter? It is the duty of adults to organise the travel environment to a safe standard AND to educate children in how to use that environment. The stated aim of this song is to raise awareness and that works both with the children who create and therefore own the song and the parents to whom they sing it. It is one small contribution to the wide and comprehensive field of activities within road safety engineering, enforcement and education.
I think there needs to be a more holistic view of how this mosaic of activity works in combination rather than seeing one or other discipline as the be-all and end-all of how to “cure” or “solve” making our roads, vehicles and road users safer.
This is one modest but very welcome initiative that will involve children and look at things from their point of view – I see that as empowering and positive and certainly not a lesson in victimhood.
Honor Byford, Chair, Road Safety GB
0
#KidsSaveLives is all about adults taking responsibility for the way that they design roads, set laws and drive in a manner which intimidates, threatens and takes the lives of children. Its essentially about what “adults” will do to protect children rather than what children will do to protect themselves.
I trust that this adult led initiative will focus on the adults rather than children but fear that once again it will simply be a mechanism for adults to tell children to stay out of their way.
Rod King, 20’s Plenty for Us
0
So again, the victims of traffic violence asked to do all the work! Safer streets mean less cars going slowly, more kids walking and cycling with their parents. You need a plan to build better infra and reduce car use. What use is a song? They will sing it from the back seats of the car? Kids barely walk any more, have no road sense because they rarely walk, let alone cycle. Write a song about that!
Christine jones, Netherlands
0
Here’s a 3 line ditty;
Motorists slow down and show respect
Use you eyes to look and see
It’s the least we should expect
Tony F, Letchworth Garden City
0