Road Safety Wales has published details of three separate initiatives by Welsh road safety teams, targeting primary-aged pedestrians, young drivers and child car seat safety.
The first initiative saw Year Three pupils at Usk primary school complete the national Kerbcraft pedestrian training programme.
The programme teaches children to recognise appropriate places to cross roads and acquire skills to become safer pedestrians. In the past 12 months more than 900 Monmouthshire pupils have received the training.
Accompanied by Monmouthshire County Council’s Kerbcraft training staff and parent volunteers, the children were presented with certificates by councillor Brian Strong, chairman of Monmouthshire County Council and cabinet member with responsibility for road safety.
Councillor Strong said: “The Kerbcraft pedestrian training scheme is invaluable as it instils the importance of road safety at an early age and ultimately saves lives.”
The second initiative features the Pass Plus Cymru course which helps young, newly qualified drivers to improve skills and gain extra experience.
The cost of the scheme has been cut from £160 to just £20, thanks to funding from Welsh Government, in a bid to encourage more young drivers to take it up.
Joshua Rees, aged 17, from Penygroes, completed the course and was also the winner of the £250 Pass Plus Cymru quarterly prize draw.
He said: “I found it very beneficial, especially the experience of driving on the motorway and at night. I found the information about stopping distances really useful too.”
The final initiative comprises a series of car seat clinics which will be taking place across Powys during March 2016.
The clinics provide an opportunity for people to have their child car seats checked out for free by Powys County Council’s Road Safety Unit, to ensure that they are fitted correctly.
During 2014-2015 in Powys, the Road Safety Unit checked 290 child car seats and found 189 had faults, which were rectified by trained road safety officers.
For more information on all these initiatives, visit the Road Safety Wales newsfeed.
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