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STUDENTS and parents
are being remined this week of the importance of
road safety and particularly wearing seat belts on
school buses in a major campaign by the Donegal Road
Safety Working Group to coincide with the start of
the new school year.
Speaking to the Inishowen Independent this week,
Donegal County Council Road Safety Officer, Eamonn
Brown said students and parents need to be reminded
of the importance of wearing a seat belt on the
journey to and from school.
“Whether it’s in a car or school bus it’s equally
important, put simply, seatbelts save lives. Putting
a safe routine in practice from day one will make it
easier to follow and allow it to become habit
forming for your child.”
According to Mr. Browne, research by the Road Safety
Authority in 2008 into seatbelt wearing rates on the
school journey by private cars suggested huge room
for improvement. Compliance with the seat belt
legislation for primary school children was 74% in
the back seat and this dropped slightly for
secondary school back seat students to 72%.
“In recent times the largest area of concern is
compliance on school buses. Antidotal evidence
suggests very few secondary school students wear a
seat belt on their school bus.”
The Road Safety Officer expressed concern about
this, as well as the gap in research to identify the
exact extent of the problem.
“Unfortunately the RSA National Seat Belt Survey
does not include bus travel. Therefore, this report
could be masking the fact that a large proportion of
our students are travelling to school and back
without a seat belt each day. I believe research
needs to be conducted at a national level to
identify the extent of this problem. The challenge
is to ensure compliance levels on bus journeys is at
least equal to or greater than the level recorded
for private cars.”
The Road Safety officer said that increased levels
of traffic can be expected over the next few weeks,
as we all get back to our normal routine, adding
that this marked increases in car, bus, cyclist and
pedestrian traffic particularly during the morning
rush hour can be particularly hazardous.
Advice from the Road Safety Officer includes leaving
plenty time for your journey, ensuring all
passengers are wearing a seat belt and taking care
when stopping outside of the school gate.
Meanwhile he added that the start of the school year
also sees the return of the familiar school warden
service across the County.
“The warden’s primary function is to assist school
children to cross the road safely. Failure to stop
for a school warden sign, if convicted through the
courts, can see up to four penalty points added to
your licence along with a fine of up to €120,” he
concluded. (Inishowen
Independent) |
